In Act 4, Scene 1 of The Winter’s Tale, Time enters to announce a shift of sixteen years, “Your patience this allowing, I turn my glass and give my scene such growing as you had slept between” (IV.I.15-17). Though Shakespeare uses this to transition the audience from Sicilia to Bohemia, it also provokes the question: who is sleeping? Time breaks the fourth wall and says it is us, which is certainly possible. As an audience, we do not have any control over the plot or the characters’ actions. Therefore, we enter Act 4 blindly and, because Time says time has passed, we have no recollection of what has happened since we had last seen the characters in Act 3. Maybe we did sleep through sixteen years and are only now aware of the events that occurred while we were “gone.” But then this goes back to challenge the characters and how their lack of change influences the fast-forward of time as well. The saying goes, “time flies when you’re having fun.” However, looking at this phrase in a different perspective, it can also say that “time goes by when one does not notice it going by.” In between the rising conflict and climax(es) of The Winter’s Tale, nothing important enough happens for us to realize the passing of time. It is not until Time literally comes up to us to give a speech that we realize just how long we’ve been “sleeping.”
On the other hand, was it the characters themselves who were sleeping? In the same monologue, Time describes the fate of each character, “Leontes leaving, th’ effects of his fond jealousies so grieving that he shuts up himself . . . Perdita, now grown in grace equal with wondering” (IV.I.17-18, IV.I.22). Leontes is still distraught and grieving over Hermione’s death; Perdita is still a wonderful, beautiful child; and Time continues to pass through these areas of their lives. Because these characters do not have any dynamic change, perhaps they were the ones who had been asleep for sixteen years and any events that occurred within that period were insignificant for us as an audience. Either way, these two viewpoints converge to show us that time literally and figuratively does not matter, except to divulge to us the differences between the past and the present.
I agree with your overall assertion that time literally and figuratively does not matter to an extent, but I think it could be taken from another angle as well. Rather than being insignificant, perhaps time is significant for the very reason that it reveals the importance of the fact that nothing has changed. In this case, the passage of sixteen years with little change in the characters underscores the importance of their sameness while simultaneously downplaying the importance of events that occurred within that period of time.
ReplyDeleteI agree that time passed represents an insignificant time period in the context of the story; however, there is no evidence to establish that all characters are static during this time. Certainly some characters experienced some kind of changes that the reader are unaware of, though each character's alteration may not be plot-changing.
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