Through this monologue, Hermione exploits her innate duplicity but also tries to uphold her status as angelical and pure. The passage creates a detached, informative mood that stresses the calculations behind Hermione’s speech. However, her angelic façade first crumbles at the sight of the word “mistress” in her first line of speech. In addition to the negative connotations that accompany the word mistress – adulterer, lover, illegitimate – Hermione furthers this negativity by claiming she is “More than mistress of/ Which comes to e in name of fault.” She furthermore refers to herself as “a lady like me”, which separates her nature from the typical characteristics of a “lady.”
Characterizing her nature further, Hermione describes the love she conveys as “even since it could speak, from an infant, freely/ That it was yours”; this statement claims that her love or Polixenes solely stemmed from the love Leontes shared with Polixenes. However, when Hermione relates this love to an infant, the reader quickly relates the impossible-to-know paternity of the child to the impossibility of knowing the extent of Hermione’s love of Polixenes. Even more significant, Hermione’s claim that both the baby and the love stem from Leontes remains unsubstantiated.
The unconfirmed claims magnify through Hermione’s unnecessarily flowery language and extended speeches. Contrasting to Leontes’ succinct one-liners, Hermione’s verses over-implicate to the point of disbelief. For example, though Hermione could have simply stated “I loved him as in honor he required” and convincingly made her argument, she continues to say “With such a kind of love as might become/ A lady like me, with a love even such, / So and no other, as yourself commanded”; the punctuation – of these excess words being set off by dashes – amplifies its triviality.
Opposing the unnecessary language, Shakespeare makes one word stand out to the reader through personification: conspiracy. Looking for the innate traits Hermione hides all along, the reader revels in her alleged detachment with conspiracy when she says: “Now, for conspiracy, / I know not how it tastes, though it be dished/ for me to try how.” Here, though she rejects having deceptive traits, she mistakenly admits involvement with conspiracy, or at least a flirtation with evil. If conspiracy had been dished to her, she must have seen, heard, or smelt conspiracy – therefore contaminating her as deceitful.
I don't necessarily think that Hermione is a deceitful character when she says the lines, “More than mistress of/ Which comes to e in name of fault.” The way I saw it, rather than trying to assert her superiority as a "lady," she was just trying to uphold her image and reputation as a good, faithful wife, especially when Leontes is accusing her without tangible evidence. However, I did read other parts of the play as possible displays of affection between Hermione and Polixenes. Their playful banter in Act 1, Scene 2 gave me the feeling that perhaps there was a little more than friendship going on between them:
ReplyDeletePolixenes: "To be your prisoner should import offending, which is for me less easy to commit than you to punish."
Hermione: "Not your jailer, then, but your kind hostess."
You pointed out the issue that Hermione's claim that both her love and her baby stem from Leontes is unsubstantiated, which highlights the issue that there may be no way to substantiate such a claim. Hermione only has her words and her actions to prove that she loves Leontes and that her child is legitimate, which magnifies the importance of trust - Leontes has lost trust in her, whether justified or not, and so her claims are, in his eyes, empty. There can be no tangible proof of love, which leaves Hermione helpless to defend her honor.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that Hermione's language is "unneccsarily flowery." I think that she needs to be eloquent in what she says so that she can be more persuasive. One of Hermione's talents is her ability to express herself and explain what she is feeling. She is also very convincing in this way. It is part of her character to have great language and it would take away to the development of her personality if she did not speak in this way.
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