Blog #7: War on Carnations

In Perdita and Polixenes’ discussion on crossbreeding flowers (IV.iv.79-103), the two create opposing arguments on the integrity of hybridization, with Perdita disparaging crossbreeds as “nature’s bastards” (IV.iv.83) and Polixenes advocating them as “a bark of baser kind / By bud of nobler race” (IV.iv.94-95). Their opinions serve as an ironic metaphor for their own class standings in The Winter’s Tale that stands to be corrected or clarified by the end of the play.

Perdita's expressed preference for unaltered flowers that have not been manipulated by man highlights an irony in her engagement to Florizel as a precursor to the very creation she spurns, creating complications in their relationship that foreshadow steps needed to be taken to resolve this disparity. Perdita wishes to avoid these mongrel breeds because they are of an “art”—borne without nature’s hand, with their “painted” (IV.iv.101) quality suggesting artifice and in some way dishonesty to nature, inherently unworthy of being deemed truly beautiful. Metaphorically, however, Perdita herself is associated with a so-called lesser breed as a shepherd’s daughter, and her relationship with Florizel implies that she is condoning this mixing of breed or rank. This complicates her thinking as she argues with Polixenes because she is conscious of her own relationship that is so contrary to this belief, which she expresses earlier discomfort with to Florizel: “O, but sir / Your resolution cannot hold when ‘tis / Opposed…by th’ power of the king. / One of these two must be necessities, Which then will speak, that you must change this purpose, / Or I my life” (Iv.iv.36-40). This flaw seems not to establish so much a permanent characterization of fickleness in Perdita as it is an internal conflict that will be expanded and brought to resolution. In order to remove her own “painted” veneer as a shepherd’s daughter (among other conflicts to be resolved), the direction of the play moves to bring her to a truer marriage with confirmation of her royal lineage.

In the same need to present grounds for contention, Shakespeare echoes in Polixenes encouragement of crossbreeding but also censure of his son’s relationship with Perdita. This again sets a scene for Polixenes to challenge his own belief that the “bud of nobler race” is allowable by nature because “The art itself is nature” (IV.iv.97) by how he eventually responds to Florizel and Perdita’s marriage, which he calls “a scepter’s heir / That thus affects a sheephook!” (IV.iv.418-419). It is true that the resolution may be rendered moot when Perdita is restored to royalty, but I think that actually may be the resolution to this issue. Perhaps Polixenes’ conflict here is meant to add another agent to the clarification of Perdita’s status, and when it is done all conflicts are either resolved or nullified.