Friday, December 12, 2008
Leontes scares me. Honestly, I think he is by far the most frightening Shakespeare character. Richard is a tyrant but at least honest in his murderous tendencies. Iago is pure evil but is at least consistently evil. But Leontes is just a normal guy…until he decides to go crazy. His abrupt swing from lovable king and husband to jealous bully frightens me. It’s a reminder of what happens when someone abuses absolute power (kind of reminiscent of Macbeth actually). This man is completely normal one second, then threatens to bash his infant daughter’s brains out in the next. I can’t ever bring myself to relax while reading this play just because I am constantly worried about Leontes’ next crazy action. The man is the supreme ruler of his land, so there is no one to stop him. There is a moment of hope when the word of God is invoked, but when he refuses to believe even the oracle, all hope is lost. The ending of this play should reassure me, but I don’t quite buy Leontes’ protestations of repentance. Who knows when this man could lose himself in another fit of jealousy?
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3 comments:
I definitely agree with you on that point. The other bothersome thing (to me) about Leontes is that there is no character development for him whatsoever. We never see his motives for believing Hermione is cheating on him and, while it's clear that the fulfillment of the oracle's prophecy facilitates his return from the dark side, that is also (like you said) totally unexpected. It seems to me like Shakespeare was too lazy to do the real work of developing his characters (blasphemy, I know) so he just smashed two plays together to fill up the empty space. Leontes is definitely one of my least Shakespearean characters both because of your reasons and the lack of development he is given.119 Even in the end, his remorse seems more like it's there because it's supposed to be, not because he really felt it or even had the depth to be able to feel anything like remorse.
While I wouldn't call him Shakespeare's most frightening character, I definitely understand why he is so scary. He has some intense mood swings, and I can't really understand if maybe he's bipolar or just crazy. In a way, this is what's supposed to make him so intriguing, because you really don't know who the real Leontes is. When you look at him as whole person though, he really is just a very mentally unstable person. When he's mad, he's filled with high octane rage, and when he's sad, he's like suicidal. I doubt Shakespeare had any other intention for this than just showing how two-faces Leontes character is.
I agree that Leontes is very frightening, but I disagree with the fact that he is portrayed as "just a normal guy" in the beginning of the play. First of all, we don't hear much from him to support this idea. The only words he speaks are to convince his friend to stay (and we have no reason for this, so it could easily be with the intention of killing him which he later shows), and then when his wife does as he commands, he sends her to prison, and tries to poison his best friend. Furthermore, in the dramatic representation of this play by the BBC (1981) Leontes is CREEPY throughout the play. I think he blinked four times... and it was a long play.
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