I was really intrigued by the newest genre of plays Shakespeare wrote in his later years, that of the romances. While reading Winter's Tale, I was waiting for the tragic event to occur and for everything to kind of go to hell. Perhaps it’s my own tendency to predict the tragic events given the past four or five plays we’ve read, but I was really interested in the plot decisions Shakespeare made in terms of the first half of the play being in the form of a tragedy, and the second half being in the form of a comedy. I also wonder in what context this play (in performance) was received. I’m really interested in general at what types of events Shakespeare’s plays were performed at. It makes sense at weddings and festivals his comedies would be performed, but I’m not sure what context it would be appropriate to perform Winter’s Tale.