Act IV, scene IV, of William Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale marks a departure from the courtly Sicilian world which dominates the three preceding acts and much of Act IV. The chaos and disorder resulting from legal events, the apparent death of Hermione, the abandonment of Perdita, the betrayal of Polixenes by Leontes and the exodus of Camillo from Sicily, for example, begin their resolution in serenity and beauty of the pastoral world, closely linked to nature. .Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay While Acts I, II, and III revolve around the actions and consequences that arise from betrayed love, the fourth scene of Act IV is dominated by successful love stories. There is the central love story between Florizel and Perdita and a peripheral love story between the shepherd's son and a country servant. As scene four begins, Florizel and Perdita reveal their feelings for each other in an exchange that incorporates the first of many references to ancient Roman deities and the natural world: "These are your unusual weeds for every part of you / Give a life; not a shepherdess, but Flora / Looking ahead to the April front. This is your sheep shearing / It is like a meeting of the little gods, / And you are the queen over it” (4.4.1-5). Perdita is compared to Flora, the goddess of nature, and all the peasants participating in the sheep shearing festival are compared to “little gods”. Not only is nature responsible for Perdita's "unusual weeds" that day, but she is also responsible for giving her Florizel an excuse to visit her, and even for bringing the two together in the first place. Florizel refers to their first meeting by saying, "I bless the time / When my good hawk made his flight through / Thy father's land" (4.4.14-16). Florizel's hawk, a wild bird that generally prefers the great outdoors, flew over Perdita's house and forced a meeting between the two. Interrupting the lovers' speech, Perdita's adoptive father approaches and implores his daughter to "suggest / These unknown friends to be welcome, because it is / A way of making us better friends, more known / Come and quench your blush and present yourself / Who you are, mistress of the feast” (4.4.64-68). Being referred to as the "mistress of the feast" recalls Florizel's reference to her as the queen of sheep shearing, and both appellations emphasize the fact that Perdita should, indeed, one day be a true queen. At her father's request, Perdita begins to welcome the unknown guests, who are actually Polixenes and Camillo in disguise, by picking flowers for them. Perdita comments briefly on the different flowers she distributes, but she dwells eloquently on a few absent flowers: O Proserpina, For the flowers now, which, in fear, you let fall From Dis's cart! Daffodils, Which come before the sparrow dares, and take The winds of March with beauty; violets, pale, but softer than the eyelids of Juno, or the breath of Cytherea; the pale primroses who die unmarried before they can behold the brilliant Phoebus in his strength (a disease which most affects young girls); bold ox lips and the imperial crown; Lilies of all kinds (the fleur-de-luce is one). O those who I miss To make you garlands, and my sweet friend, To sprinkle it again and again! (4.4.116-129) This passage mentions Proserpina, who is the daughter of Ceres, a goddess related to the goddess of the earth, fertility and death. Proserpina is the goddess of spring and the underworld. A link between Proserpina andPerdita is that when Proserpina was kidnapped by Pluto (the god of the underworld, also known as Dis) to become the queen of the underworld, she was picking flowers. Perdita also picks flowers in this scene and offers them to her guests. Another connection between Perdita and Proserpina is that Proserpina is the goddess of the underworld and Perdita is considered dead by those who live in Sicily. The first flower mentioned by Perdita is the daffodil. Its appearance is interesting because it is the only play in which Shakespeare mentions it. She was generally seen as a symbol of rebirth, and that's fitting here because one of the major themes of TWT, and this scene in particular, is death and rebirth. During the play, Hermione and Perdita die – or so the Sicilian court believes. In this scene, spring arrives and the plants flower (a symbol of rebirth), and Perdita, who was thought to be dead, reappears in an apparent rebirth. She is not only alive, but an adult. Hermione is also reborn in a sense in the next and final act. The next flower Perdita mentions is the violet. Violets represent loyalty and are a good luck gift for a woman in any season. They also allude to Roman mythology: Cupid once considered a group of young girls more beautiful than Venus, who then beat them out of jealousy until they turned blue, thus turning them into violets. ("Cytherea", which is used here, is another name for Venus.) The primroses represent budding love and refer to the feelings that Perdita and Florizel have for each other. Likewise, lilies represent purity, virginal modesty and innocence: Perdita and Florizel agree to wait until marriage to consummate their relationship. Imperial crowns represent power, evoking Florizel's status at court and Perdita's birthright at the Sicilian court. The fact that she does not have these flowers is a metaphor for her lost birthright. The theme of honesty and disguise is also present in this scene. It takes place in the pastoral world, and the more structured world of the court is left aside. Following the pastoral trend, all members of the court who appear in the pastoral world disguise themselves as peasants. Each disguise is assigned to serve the character's personal goal. Florizel calls herself "Doricles" and dresses like a peasant so that she can freely court Perdita. Camillo and Polixenes dress as peasants so that the king can monitor his son's behavior through them and observe the woman with whom Florizel has fallen in love. Autolycus is no longer a member of the court, but he remains a master of disguise for reasons that are all selfish. As selfish as he is, Autolycus nevertheless remains one of the most honest characters in the play. He is dishonest in taking advantage of people to line his pockets, but his self-awareness and almost comical adherence to his villainous behavior makes him an almost sympathetic villain. Loyalty to his dishonest lifestyle contributes to the play's happy ending. He says at one point that "If I / thought it was a matter of honesty to inform the king /, I would not do it. I consider it all the more / cheating to hide it; and in this I am faithful to my profession.” " (4.4.679-683). Autolycus thinks that telling Polixenes of his son's intentions to flee to Sicily would be too honest an action, so he refrains. In this way, Perdita is allowed to recover her right to he birthright and his mother is restored to life In the first half of the play, Leontes is guilty of tyranny. In this scene, Polixenes exhibits the same vice when he threatens Perdita and her family after her son chooses her for..