The Winter's Tale and A Midsummer Night's Dream are two plays in which Shakespeare makes use of the pastoral form. In both plays we see the typical form of the pastoral: someone leaves the corrupt city and goes to the country; when they return from the country they are changed and so is the city. However, the country is portrayed in different ways and the reason for the journeys are different.
The first stage in the pastoral is the corruption of the city. In A Midsummer Night's Dream we see young love obstructed by parental and political tyranny. Hermia's father wants her to marry Demetrius. However, she's in love with Lysander. Because of the laws of Athens, Egeus--as Hermia's father--has the power to determine what she does with her life.
...And, my gracious Duke,
Be it so she will not here before your Grace
Consent to marry with Demetrius,
I beg the ancient privilege of Athens:
As she is mine, I may dispose of her,
Which shall be either to this gentleman
Or to her death according to our law
Immediately provided in that case.
(1.1. 38-45)
She is also given a third choice: ". . . to abjure/forever the society of men"(1.1.65-66). So patriarchal society has left her without a choice. This is a world where the men have the power and the women have to bend to their will. This is not a world that allows the young lovers to live the kind of life that they would wish to live.
Unlike in A Midsummer Night's Dream, the person who "gets away from it all" in The Winter's Tale isn't going to the countryside voluntarily. This is because the corruption that exists is based on a kind of madness that is better known as jealousy. King Leontes of Sicilia has convinced himself that King Polixenes--his boyhood friend--and his wife Hermione have been having an affair. Despite what anyone said to the contrary, Leontes continues to persist in his delusions. He orders his loyal man Camillo to kill Polixenes. Camillo, however, warns Polixenes and helps him to escape Leontes wrath. Leontes takes the flight to be an affirmation of the truth of his assertions. "How blest am I/ In my just censure, in my true opinion!"(2.1.37-38) In fact he comes to believe that there is a plot against him. He had sent an embassy to the oracle at Deleos but he thought that the oracle would confirm his erroneous beliefs so he decided to dispense justice. So he puts his wife on trial .Hermione is pregnant and he has her placed in prison. She had a baby girl. Paulina, the wife of Antiginous, takes the baby to Leontes.
Mark, and preform it: seest thou? For the fail
of any point in 't, shall not only be
Death to thyself, but to thy lewd-tongued wife,
Whom for this time we pardon. We enjoin thee,
As thou art liegeman to us, that thou carry
This female bastard hence, and that thou bear it
To some remote and desert place, quite out
Of our dominions; and that there thou leave it,
Without more mercy, to it's own protection
And favor of the climate. As by strange fortune
It came to us, I do in justice charge thee,
On thy soul's peril, and thy body's torture,
That thou commend it strangely to some place,
Where chance may nurse or end it. . .
(2.3.178-181)
After sending the baby to wherever she should go he receives news from the oracle that his wife and friend had not had an affair but had both been true to him and that he wouldn't have an heir until "that which is lost is found." Leontes refuses to believe it. Then he receives news of his sons death. Then he received news that his wife has died. He realizes that what the oracle said is true and now he is being punished. Sicilia was corrupted by tyranny just like Athens was. Here the Tyranny was the byproduct of jealousy and delusions.
Now that we have the corrupt city life we now have a movement towards the countryside. In A Midsummer Night's Dream Lysander and Hermia steal away to the forest in order to get to his aunts house which lies some ways away from Athens so they can marry. Helena and Demetrius follow. Even though we have the remote spot away from the hustle and bustle of Athens we still have corruption. Here we find the petty fighting of Oberon and Titania. What should be the idealic world of the pastoral is not so perfect. The conflict of Oberon and Titania causes us to see that even though the four lovers are outside of the civilized world the same things which caused them strife in the city exist in the forest. Because of the corruption which exists in the forest, this could be seen as anti-pastoral. In Athens we see the powers that be limiting the love of the young lovers who try to escape and make things right. In the forest there is Titania and Oberon who are also tyrannical in love an in trying to control the loves of others. First we hear how Titania has interfered in the love life of Theseus before. Then we see Oberon play with the love of the four lovers and his wife Titania through Puck.
I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite overcanopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk roses, with eglantine.
There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,
Lulled in these flowers with dances and delight;
And there the snake throws her enamaled skin,
Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in.
And with the juice of this I'll streak her eyes,
And make her full of hateful fantasies.
Take thou some of it, and seek through this grove.
A sweet Athenian lady is in love
With a disdainful youth. Anoint his eyes;
But do it when the next thing he espies
May be the lady. Thou shalt know the man
By the Athenian garmets he hath on.
Effect it with some care that he may prove
More fond on her than she upon her love:
And look thou meet me ere the first cock crow.
(2.1.248-267)
So thus the Puck starts to confuse things by performing his task on the wrong young man. Thus soon both young men love Helena and hate Hermia. For Titania an arrogant rough mechanic known as Bottom the weaver has an asses head put on him and becomes Titania's love. In her case Oberon does this for revenge. Because she refuses to bend to his patriarchal will she must suffer the humiliation of loving a lowly abomination. Besides this replication of the patriarchal tyranny in the forest there is also the fear of rape and wild animals. This is not a perfect world. We still find fear and corruption in the country. There is no sense of order just more disorder. The Winter's Tale , however, we see a different pastoral world. Here we have shepherds in Bohemia who raise the baby, Perdita. They believe she is a changeling. They see the death of all who were instruments in her abandonment. When she is sixteen years old we find that Perdita has grown into a beautiful shepherdess whose "royal" nature shows through. She is lovely and natural and sensual and chaste. In fact she is engaged to the Prince Florizel of Bohemia. Of course no one knows he is really the Prince, except for Perdita. Everyone at their wedding feast believe that he is a shepherd. However, not everything in this world of sheep, flowers and love is perfect. For one thing there is the thief Autolycus who shows up and robs Perdita's brother and anyone else he can dupe.
My traffic is sheets; when the kite builds, look to
lesser linen. My father named me Autolycus, who
being, as I am, littered under Mercury, was like-
wise a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles. With die
and drab, I purchased this caparison, and my
revenue is the silly cheat. Gallows and knock
are too powerful on the highway. Beating and hang-
ing are terrors to me; for the life to come, I sleep
out the thought of it. A prize, a prize.
(4.3.23-31)
Also we have Polixenes intrude upon the feast and break up the festivity thus putting an end to the marriage and bring about the events which sets into action the resolution.
Last of all we have the return to the city. Being in the country has changed the characters in one way or another. In A Midsummer Night's Dream we see a change which brings about the happy marriages of three couples and Bottom has had a transcending experience where love lifts you up. He has had "a rare vision." Yet nonetheless Bottom remains pretty much the same. Titania is changed because she is now submitting to the will of Oberon. She has given him the cause of their argument, the changeling boy. Patriarchy has been reasserted in the forest. The lovers are changed. Helena and Demetrius both love each other mutually. They, as well as Hermia and Lysander have had a magical experience in the forest--which later is seen as fantastic. Also, Theseus overrides Egeus and allows Hermia and Lysander to marry and for Helena and Demetrius to marry. In the end we see order. Everyone gets married. Authority and order are restored. There is harmony between the wedded couples and between Titania and Oberon. Seemingly everything has been set right. But what has changed in Athens? In truth Theseus is still the one who exerts power in the end. He orders things the way he wants them in the end and it happens. The only thing that has changed here is that Egeus? power as Hermia's father has been overridden.
In The Winter's Tale we also see that the journey from the country back to the city does bring change and reconciliation. Camillio convinces the Prince that when he runs away with Perdita, he should go to Sicilla. Then Camillo tells the king. So Everyone even the Shepherd, his son, and Autolycus all end up in Sicillia. Everything is put right. Leontes is repentant for what he had done and is happy to have an heir again. He is reconciled with his boyhood friend but now on a more adult level instead of being stuck in a longing for the old boyhood days. Camillio is brought back into favor with Leontes. Also Polixenes is now happy for Florizel and Perdita to marry now that he knows she is truly of royal blood. He has not changed in this respect because his objection to the marriage in the first place had been over class difference. Since she is not really a rustic peasant but a royal princess he has no problem with the marriage. The Shepherd and his son are now accepted as family. They have risen above their class. Leontes on the other hand has changed since that day when he lost everything. Paulina who he called a "hag" and many other foul names is now his trusted advisor. Through standing up for the truth while remaining loyal she--and Camillio as well--have earned the kings respect and gratitude. In fact Camillio is responsible for the restoration of the daughter and Paulina is responsible for the resurrection of the wife. Without these two stubborn and faithful servants the happy ending would not have been possible. In the end Leontes regains his family. Like A Midsummer Night's Dream, there is a pairing up of couples: Hermione and Leontes; Florizel and Perdita; and Paulina and Camillo. Thus order is restored at the end with marriage and reunification at the end, which is similar to A Midsummer Night's Dream.
In both plays the Pastoral form was used to take corruption and disorder and to eventually reassert order. Leontes jealousy didn't bring about the tragic ending that occurred in Othello. He received a second chance. His lost family was returned to him. Oberon reasserted his power over Titania. Theseus got what he wanted. Helena and Hermia married the men they wanted. Everybody's happy. Even Autolycus has an advocate in the brother of Perdita--who he cheated and robbed on many occasions--to his former master the Prince. Order, authority, family, and patriarchy have been restored. The journey has come full circle.