SHEILA INNES

Explanatory notes and guidance to help students understand Shakespeare's plays. Shakespeare structures the two parts of The Winter's Tale around the figure of Time, who speaks of the 16 years' 'wide gap of time', of Leontes' grief and of the progress of Perdita in the home of the kindly Shepherd. It is a play full of oppositions: court versus country, nature versus art, winter versus spirng, birth versus death, men versus women. The Winter's Tale is one of the last plays Shakespeare wrote. It has all the attributes of these 'late' plays; intricate language patterns, and wonder and tragi-comic structure. From Robert Green's prose story Pandosto, which ends with the suicide of the repentant king, Shakespeare crafts a moving play of forgiveness and redemption. These guides help students to evaluate the historical, social and cultural contexts for a broader understanding of Shakespeare's plays. The content of each book in the series follows the pattern of an introduction; detailed running commentary on the text; insight into historical, social and cultural contexts; analysis of the language; an overview of critical approaches and different interpretations; essay-writing tips and lists of recommended resources.