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Freedom and Necessity in The Winter’s Tale

2014

From the first expository scene, The Winter’s Tale exhibits a concern with necessity, either through the use of the word itself, its derivatives (necessities, necessary), and their synonyms (needful, required) or through the notion of what “must” happen, what “cannot but” happen. The recurrence of such terms conveys a sense that this is a world where no one is free, and every action is dictated by force of circumstance. This is reinforced by the widespread use of the traditional imagery of fate. Yet the characters of the play are reluctant to submit to necessity. Some even fantasize states of absolute freedom, including freedom from the laws of nature. The play itself, notwithstanding the o…