It seems to me that Shakespeare is continuing themes he addressed in Othello, with jealousy and irrationally reacting to perceived wrongs. I feel sorry for poor Leontes, but in this play he has no Iago to blame, his jealousy is all his own. His reaction to what he sees is all his own.
I found an interesting thin on Wikipedia when doing some cursory research. I will have to look up the source that is cited and follow up on this, but on Wikipedia it says :
Eric Ives, the biographer of Anne Boleyn (1986),[4] believes that the play is really a parallel of the fall of the queen, who was beheaded on false charges of adultery on the orders of her husband Henry VIII in 1536. There are numerous parallels between the two stories – including the fact that one of Henry's closest friends, Sir Henry Norreys, was beheaded as one of Anne's supposed lovers and he refused to confess in order to save his life – claiming that everyone knew the Queen was innocent. If this theory is followed then Perdita becomes a dramatic presentation of Anne's only daughter, Queen Elizabeth I.
( Ives, The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn 2004:421: in spite of other scholars' rejection of any parallels between Henry VIII and Leontes, asserts "the parallels are there", noting his article "Shakespeare and History: divergencies and agreements", in Shakespeare Survey38 (1985:19–35), p 24f.)
This brings up an interesting point, that this play is a parallel of events that happened in Queen Elizabeth's life. And while that may be true, what does the play tell us? Why would Shakespeare add these parallels? What was he trying to do or prove to his audience?
In the play, the Queen (Hermione) is proven innocent at the end, and reconciled with her husband, but more importantly, her honor is restored. She is no longer looked upon as an adulteress. And as a result, her daughter is recognized as a legitimate heir to the throne. This was a huge deal during Elizabeth's reign, particularly since her father had six wives and no sons among them. There were rumors and allegations as to Elizabeth's legitimacy from the very beginning.
This reading of the play sheds new light on the purpose of the play: It becomes less about Leontes and his jealousy, and more about Hermione and Perdita, and how they are affected by Leontes' decisions. I will definitely have to pursue this, maybe do a more feminist approach to the play with this in mind.
