Do you find that The Winter's Tale, despite its use of Apollo's oracle, is a Christian play?
How important is motivation in a character? Do we need to know why Leontes is jealous?
How do you respond to the women in the play (Hermione, Paulina, Perdita)? What is the effect of Mamillius's cheeky confidence on stage, and his death offstage?
Endings and closure. Do some plays provide more of a sense of closure than others? Can you see any linking characteristics between the more open and more closed plays?
There are at least two ways of approaching the last scene, treating it as a reverent exercise in wonder, or, at least at the beginning, as a more relaxed family occasion, suddenly lifted to the wondrous. Which interpretation do you prefer? Can you think of others?
What do you make of the last action of the play, where Paulina and Camillo are matched? Does it present any of the kinds of problems that were discussed when we considered the last-minute matching of the Duke and Isabella in Measure for Measure?
