Themes, Motifs and Symbols of Dr Faustus

Themes

"Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work."

Sin, Redemption, and Damnation

Insofar as Doctor Faustus is a Christian play, it deals with the themes at the heart of Christianity’s understanding of the world. First, there is the idea of sin, which Christianity defines as acts contrary to the will of God. In making a pact with Lucifer, Faustus commits what is in a sense the ultimate sin: not only does he disobey God, but he consciously and even eagerly renounces obedience to him, choosing instead to swear allegiance to the devil. In a Christian framework, however, even the worst deed can be forgiven through the redemptive power of Jesus Christ, God’s son, who, according to Christian belief, died on the cross for humankind’s sins. Thus, however terrible Faustus’s pact with Lucifer may be, the possibility of redemption is always open to him. All that he needs to do, theoretically, is ask God for forgiveness. The play offers countless moments in which Faustus considers doing just that, urged on by the good angel on his shoulder or by the old man in scene 12—both of whom can be seen either as emissaries of God, personifications of Faustus’s conscience, or both.
Each time, Faustus decides to remain loyal to hell rather than seek heaven. In the Christian framework, this turning away from God condemns him to spend an eternity in hell. Only at the end of his life does Faustus desire to repent, and, in the final scene, he cries out to Christ to redeem him. But it is too late for him to repent. In creating this moment in which Faustus is still alive but incapable of being redeemed, Marlowe steps outside the Christian worldview in order to maximize the dramatic power of the final scene. Having inhabited a Christian world for the entire play, Faustus spends his final moments in a slightly different universe, where redemption is no longer possible and where certain sins cannot be forgiven.

Power as a Corrupting Influence

Early in the play, before he agrees to the pact with Lucifer, Faustus is full of ideas for how to use the power that he seeks. He imagines piling up great wealth, but he also aspires to plumb the mysteries of the universe and to remake the map of Europe. Though they may not be entirely admirable, these plans are ambitious and inspire awe, if not sympathy. They lend a grandeur to Faustus’s schemes and make his quest for personal power seem almost heroic, a sense that is reinforced by the eloquence of his early soliloquies.
Once Faustus actually gains the practically limitless power that he so desires, however, his horizons seem to narrow. Everything is possible to him, but his ambition is somehow sapped. Instead of the grand designs that he contemplates early on, he contents himself with performing conjuring tricks for kings and noblemen and takes a strange delight in using his magic to play practical jokes on simple folks. It is not that power has corrupted Faustus by making him evil: indeed, Faustus’s behavior after he sells his soul hardly rises to the level of true wickedness. Rather, gaining absolute power corrupts Faustus by making him mediocre and by transforming his boundless ambition into a meaningless delight in petty celebrity.
In the Christian framework of the play, one can argue that true greatness can be achieved only with God’s blessing. By cutting himself off from the creator of the universe, Faustus is condemned to mediocrity. He has gained the whole world, but he does not know what to do with it.

The Divided Nature of Man

Faustus is constantly undecided about whether he should repent and return to God or continue to follow his pact with Lucifer. His internal struggle goes on throughout the play, as part of him of wants to do good and serve God, but part of him (the dominant part, it seems) lusts after the power that Mephastophilis promises. The good angel and the evil angel, both of whom appear at Faustus’s shoulder in order to urge him in different directions, symbolize this struggle. While these angels may be intended as an actual pair of supernatural beings, they clearly represent Faustus’s divided will, which compels Faustus to commit to Mephastophilis but also to question this commitment continually.

Motifs

Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.

Magic and the Supernatural

The supernatural pervades Doctor Faustus, appearing everywhere in the story. Angels and devils flit about, magic spells are cast, dragons pull chariots (albeit offstage), and even fools like the two innkeepers, Robin and Rafe, can learn enough magic to summon demons. Still, it is worth noting that nothing terribly significant is accomplished through magic. Faustus plays tricks on people, conjures up grapes, and explores the cosmos on a dragon, but he does not fundamentally reshape the world. The magic power that Mephastophilis grants him is more like a toy than an awesome, earth-shaking ability. Furthermore, the real drama of the play, despite all the supernatural frills and pyrotechnics, takes place within Faustus’s vacillating mind and soul, as he first sells his soul to Lucifer and then considers repenting. In this sense, the magic is almost incidental to the real story of Faustus’s struggle with himself, which Marlowe intended not as a fantastical battle but rather as a realistic portrait of a human being with a will divided between good and evil.

Practical Jokes

Once he gains his awesome powers, Faustus does not use them to do great deeds. Instead, he delights in playing tricks on people: he makes horns sprout from the knight’s head and sells the horse-courser an enchanted horse. Such magical practical jokes seem to be Faustus’s chief amusement, and Marlowe uses them to illustrate Faustus’s decline from a great, prideful scholar into a bored, mediocre magician with no higher ambition than to have a laugh at the expense of a collection of simpletons.

Symbols: Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.

Blood

Blood plays multiple symbolic roles in the play. When Faustus signs away his soul, he signs in blood, symbolizing the permanent and supernatural nature of this pact. His blood solidifies on the page, however, symbolizing; perhaps, his own body’s revolt against what he intends to do. Meanwhile, Christ’s blood, which Faustus says he sees running across the sky during his terrible last night, symbolizes the sacrifice that Jesus, according to Christian belief, made on the cross; this sacrifice opened the way for humankind to repent its sins and be saved. Faustus, of course, in his proud folly, fails to take this path to salvation.

Faustus’s Rejection of the Ancient Authorities

In scene 1, Faustus goes through a list of the major fields of human knowledge—logic, medicine, law, and theology—and cites for each an ancient authority (Aristotle, Galen, Justinian, and Jerome’s Bible, respectively). He then rejects all of these figures in favor of magic. This rejection symbolizes Faustus’s break with the medieval world, which prized authority above all else, in favor of a more modern spirit of free inquiry, in which experimentation and innovation trump the assertions of Greek philosophers and the Bible.

The Good Angel and the Evil Angel

The angels appear at Faustus’s shoulder early on in the play—the good angel urging him to repent and serve God, the evil angel urging him to follow his lust for power and serve Lucifer. The two symbolize his divided will, part of which wants to do good and part of which is sunk in sin"." (Spark Notes)

Characters in Dr Faustus and Analysis of major characters

Faustus  -  a brilliant sixteenth-century scholar from Wittenberg, Germany, whose ambition for knowledge, wealth, and worldly might makes him willing to pay the ultimate price, his soul to Lucifer in exchange for supernatural powers.

Mephastophilis  -  A devil whom Faustus summons with his initial magical experiments. Mephastophilis’s motivations are ambiguous: on the one hand, his oft-expressed goal is to catch Faustus’s soul and carry it off to hell; on the other hand, he actively attempts to dissuade Faustus from making a deal with Lucifer by warning him about the horrors of hell.

Old Man  -  An mysterious figure who appears in the final scene. The old man urges Faustus to repent and to ask God for mercy. He seems to have replaced the good and evil angels, who in the first scene, try to influence Faustus’s behavior.

Good Angel  -  A spirit that urges Faustus to repent for his pact with Lucifer and return to God. The Good Angel represents Faustus’s conscience.

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Evil Angel  -  A spirit that serves as the counterpart to the good angel and provides Faustus with reasons not to repent for sins against God. The evil angel represents the evil half of Faustus’s conscience.

Lucifer  -  The prince of devils, the ruler of hell, and Mephastophilis’s master.

Wagner  -  Faustus’s servant. Wagner uses his master’s books to learn how to summon devils and work magic.

Clown  -  A clown who becomes Wagner’s servant. The clown’s antics provide comic relief; he is a ridiculous character, and his absurd behavior initially contrasts with Faustus’s magnificence. As the play goes on, Faustus’s behavior comes to resemble that of the clown.

Robin  -  An innkeeper, who is like a clown, provides a comic contrast to Faustus. Robin and his friend Rafe learn some basic conjuring, demonstrating that even the least scholarly can possess skill in magic.

Rafe  -  Also an innkeeper and a friend of Robin.

Valdes and Cornelius  -  Two friends of Faustus, both magicians, who teach him the art of black magic.

Horse-courser  -  A horse-trader who buys a horse from Faustus, which vanishes after the horse-courser rides it into the water, leading him to seek revenge.

The Scholars  -  Faustus’s colleagues at the University of Wittenberg. Loyal to Faustus, the scholars appear at the beginning and end of the play to express dismay at the turn Faustus’s studies have taken, to marvel at his achievements, and then to hear his agonized confession of his pact with Lucifer.

The pope  -  The head of the Roman Catholic Church and a powerful political figure in the Europe of Faustus’s day. The pope serves as both a source of amusement for the play’s Protestant audience and a symbol of the religious faith that Faustus has rejected.

Emperor Charles V  -  The most powerful monarch in Europe, whose court Faustus visits.

Benvolio  -  A German nobleman at the emperor’s court, a knight. He is skeptical of Faustus’s power, and Faustus makes antlers sprout from his head to teach him a lesson. He seeks revenge on Faustus and plans to murder him.

Bruno  -  A candidate for the papacy, supported by the emperor. Bruno is captured by the pope and freed by Faustus.

Duke of Vanholt  -  A German nobleman whom Faustus visits.

Martino and Frederick  -  Friends of Benvolio who reluctantly join his attempt to kill Faustus. 

 Analysis of Major Characters

 

Faustus

Faustus is a contradictory character, capable of tremendous eloquence and possessing awesome ambition, yet prone to a strange, almost willful blindness and a willingness to waste powers that he has gained at great cost. When we first meet Faustus, he is just preparing to embark on his career as a magician, and while we already anticipate that things will turn out badly, there is nonetheless magnificence to Faustus as he contemplates all the marvels that his magical powers will produce. He imagines piling up wealth from the four corners of the globe, reshaping the map of Europe (both politically and physically), and gaining access to every scrap of knowledge about the universe. He is an arrogant, conceited man, but his ambitions are so grand that we cannot help being impressed, and we even feel sympathetic toward him. He represents the spirit of the Renaissance, with its rejection of the medieval, God-centered universe, and its embrace of human possibility. Faustus, at least early on in his acquisition of magic, is the personification of possibility.

But Faustus also possesses an ignorance that becomes apparent during his bargaining sessions with Mephastophilis. Having decided that a pact with the devil is the only way to fulfill his ambitions, Faustus then blinds himself happily to what such a pact actually means. Sometimes he tells himself that hell is not so bad and that one needs only “fortitude”; at other times, even while conversing with Mephastophilis, he remarks to the disbelieving demon that he does not actually believe hell exists. Meanwhile, despite his lack of concern about the prospect of eternal damnation, -Faustus is also overwhelmed with doubts from the beginning, setting a pattern for the play in which he repeatedly approaches repentance only to pull back at the last moment. Why he fails to repent is unclear: -sometimes it seems a matter of pride and continuing ambition, sometimes a conviction that God will not hear his plea. Other times, it seems that Mephastophilis simply bullies him away from repenting.

Mephastophilis

The character of Mephastophilis is one of the first in a long tradition of sympathetic literary devils. Marlowe’s Mephastophilis is particularly interesting because he has mixed damnation. Indeed, he openly admits it, telling Faustus that “when we hear one rack the name of God, Abjure the Scriptures and his savior Christ, We fly in hope to get his glorious soul” (3.47–49). It is Mephastophilis who witnesses Faustus’s pact with Lucifer, and it is he who, throughout the play, steps in whenever Faustus considers repentance to persuade or threaten him into staying loyal to hell. Yet there is an odd ambivalence in Mephastophilis. He seeks to damn Faustus, but he himself is damned and speaks freely of the horrors of hell. When Faustus carelessly declares that he does not believe in hell, Mephastophilis insists that hell is, indeed real and terrible, as Faustus comes to know soon enough. Before the pact is sealed, Mephastophilis actually warns Faustus against making the deal with Lucifer. In an odd way, one can almost sense that part of Mephastophilis does not want Faustus to make the same mistakes that he made. But, of course, Faustus does so anyway, which makes him and Mephastophilis kindred spirits. It is appropriate that these two figures dominate Marlowe’s play, for they are two overly proud spirits doomed to hell.

Source

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/doctorfaustus/canalysis.html

Plot Overview of DR.FAUSTUS

Doctor Faustus, a well-respected German scholar, grows dissatisfied with the limits of traditional forms of knowledge—logic, medicine, law, and religion—and decides that he wants to learn to practice magic. His friends Valdes and Cornelius instruct him in the black arts, and he begins his new career as a magician by summoning up Mephastophilis, a devil. Despite Mephastophilis’s warnings about the horrors of hell, Faustus tells the devil to return to his master, Lucifer, with an offer of Faustus’s soul in exchange for twenty-four years of service from Mephastophilis. Meanwhile, Wagner, Faustus’s servant, has picked up some magical ability and uses it to press a clown named Robin into his service.


Mephastophilis returns to Faustus with word that Lucifer has accepted Faustus’s offer. Faustus experiences some misgivings and wonders if he should repent and save his soul; in the end, though, he agrees to the deal, signing it with his blood. As soon as he does so, the words “Homo fuge,” Latin for “O man, fly,” appear branded on his arm. Faustus again has second thoughts, but Mephastophilis bestows rich gifts on him and gives him a book of spells to learn. Later, Mephastophilis answers all of his questions about the nature of the world, refusing to answer only when Faustus asks him who made the universe. This refusal prompts yet another bout of misgivings in Faustus, but Mephastophilis and Lucifer bring in personifications of the Seven Deadly Sins to prance about in front of Faustus, and he is impressed enough to quiet his doubts.

Armed with his new powers and attended by Mephastophilis, Faustus begins to travel. He goes to the pope’s court in Rome, makes himself invisible, and plays a series of tricks. He disrupts the pope’s banquet by stealing food and boxing the pope’s ears. Following this incident, he travels through the courts of Europe, with his fame spreading as he goes. Eventually, he is invited to the court of the German emperor, Charles V (the enemy of the pope), who asks Faustus to allow him to see Alexander the Great, the famed fourth-century b.c. Macedonian king and conqueror. Faustus conjures up an image of Alexander, and Charles is suitably impressed. A knight scoffs at Faustus’s powers, and Faustus chastises him by making antlers sprout from his head. Furious, the knight vows revenge.

Meanwhile, Robin, Wagner’s clown, has picked up some magic on his own, and with his fellow stablehand, Rafe, he undergoes a number of comic misadventures. At one point, he manages to summon Mephastophilis, who threatens to turn Robin and Rafe into animals (or perhaps even does transform them; the text isn’t clear) to punish them for their foolishness.

Faustus then goes on with his travels, playing a trick on a horse-courser along the way. Faustus sells him a horse that turns into a heap of straw when ridden into a river. Eventually, Faustus is invited to the court of the Duke of Vanholt, where he performs various feats. The horse-courser shows up there, along with Robin, a man named Dick (Rafe in the A text), and various others who have fallen victim to Faustus’s trickery. But Faustus casts spells on them and sends them on their way, to the amusement of the duke and duchess.

As the twenty-four years of his deal with Lucifer come to a close, Faustus begins to dread his impending death. He has Mephastophilis call up Helen of Troy, the famous beauty from the ancient world, and uses her presence to impress a group of scholars. An old man urges Faustus to repent, but Faustus drives him away. Faustus summons Helen again and exclaims rapturously about her beauty. But time is growing short. Faustus tells the scholars about his pact, and they are horror-stricken and resolve to pray for him. On the final night before the expiration of the twenty-four years, Faustus is overcome by fear and remorse. He begs for mercy, but it is too late. At midnight, a host of devils appears and carries his soul off to hell. In the morning, the scholars find Faustus’s limbs and decide to hold a funeral for him.

From,

Sankari


references


http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/doctorfaustus/summary.html

Characters in The Winter's Tale

Leontes - The King of Sicilia, and the childhood friend of the Bohemian King Polixenes. He is gripped by jealous fantasies, which convince him that Polixenes has been having an affair with his wife, Hermione; his jealousy leads to the destruction of his family.

Hermione - The virtuous and beautiful Queen of Sicilia. Falsely accused of infidelity by her husband, Leontes, she apparently dies of grief just after being vindicated by the Oracle of Delphi, but is restored to life at the play's close.

Perdita - The daughter of Leontes and Hermione. Because her father believes her to be illegitimate, she is abandoned as a baby on the coast of Bohemia, and brought up by a Shepherd. Unaware of her royal lineage, she falls in love with the Bohemian Prince Florizel.

Polixenes - The King of Bohemia, and Leontes's boyhood friend. He is falsely accused of having an affair with Leontes's wife, and barely escapes Sicilia with his life. Much later in life, he sees his only son fall in love with a lowly Shepherd's daughter--who is, in fact, a Sicilian princess.

Florizel - Polixenes's only son and heir; he falls in love with Perdita, unaware of her royal ancestry, and defies his father by eloping with her.

Camillo - An honest Sicilian nobleman, he refuses to follow Leontes's order to poison Polixenes, deciding instead to flee Sicily and enter the Bohemian King's service.

Paulina - A noblewoman of Sicily, she is fierce in her defense of Hermione's virtue, and unrelenting in her condemnation of Leontes after Hermione's death. She is also the agent of the (apparently) dead Queen's resurrection.

Autolycus - A roguish peddler, vagabond, and pickpocket; he steals the Clown's purse and does a great deal of pilfering at the Shepherd's sheepshearing, but ends by assisting in Perdita and Florizel's escape.

Shepherd - An old and honorable sheep-tender, he finds Perdita as a baby and raises her as his own daughter.

Antigonus - Paulina's husband, and also a loyal defender of Hermione. He is given the unfortunate task of abandoning the baby Perdita on the Bohemian coast.

Clown - The Shepherd's buffoonish son, and Perdita's adopted brother.

Mamillius - The young prince of Sicilia, Leontes and Hermione's son. He dies, perhaps of grief, after his father wrongly imprisons his mother.

Cleomenes - A lord of Sicilia, sent to Delphi to ask the Oracle about Hermione's guilt.

Dion - A Sicilian lord, he accompanies Cleomenes to Delphi.

Emilia - One of Hermione's ladies-in-waiting.

Archidamus - A lord of Bohemia.

From

Sankari




Reference:
http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/winterstale/characters.html

Top Ten Significant Quotes from The Winter's Tale

1. "We were as twinn'd lambs that did frisk i'the sun,And bleat the one at the other: what we chang'd Was innocence for innocence; we knew not The doctrine of ill-doing, no, nor dream'd That any did." (Act 1, scene 2, lines 67-71) Polixenes tells Hermoine of the his great friendship with Leontes in their youth. 2. "Paddling palms, and pinching fingers." (Act 1, scene 2, line 115) Leontes looks suspiciously at Hermoine and Polixenes as they talk together. 3. "A sad tale's best for winter: I have one Of sprites and goblins." (Act 2, scene 1, lines 25-26) Mamilius responds to his mother when she asks him to tell a story. 4. "What's gone, and what's past help, Should be past grief." (Act 3, scene 1, lines 222-23) Paulina speaking after a distressed Leontes has realized all the harm done by his jealousy. 5. "Exit, pursued by a bear." (Act 3, scene 3, line 58) Stage direction for Antigonus' exit. 6. "When daffodils begin to peer, With heigh! the doxy over the dale, Why, then comes in the sweet o' the year; For the red blood reigns in the winter's pale." (Act 4, scene 3, lines 1-4) Autolycus sings of spring. 7. "A snapper-up of unconsidered trifles." (Act 4, scene 3, lines 1-4) Autolycus describing his occupation as a peddler. 8. "The self-same sun that shines upon his court Hides not his visage from our cottage, but  Looks on all alike." (Act 4, scene 4, lines 446-48) Perdita speaks after Polixenes has banned her and Florizel from ever seeing each other again. 9. "Though I am not naturally honest, I am so sometimes by chance." (Act 4, scene 4, line 712-13) Autolycus describes himself. 10. "'Tis time; descend; be stone no more; approach." (Act 5, scene 3, line 99) Paulina commands the statue of Hermoine to move. From, Sankari References http://www.novelguide.com/thewinter'stale/toptenquotes.htm

The Winter's Tale Summary

The Winter's Tale Summary

Without any good cause, Leontes, King of Sicilia, suddenly comes to believe that his wife Hermione is having an adulterous affair with his best friend Polixenes, King of Bohemia. He orders Camillo, his trusted friend and advisor, to poison Polixenes. Camillo is torn between loyalty to his king and following his conscience. He chooses his conscience, and rather than obey his king he helps Polixenes to escape back to Bohemia.

When he hears of their flight, Leontes is convinced that his wife and his two best friends have been plotting against him. He has Hermione, who is pregnant, thrown into jail. Hermione has the baby while imprisoned. Paulina, a fearless noblewoman loyal to the queen, brings the baby to Leontes in hopes that the sight of the child will bring the king to his senses. Instead, the king orders Paulina's husband, Antigonus, to abandon the child in a remote area. If he does not do so, Paulina will be executed. Heartsick, Antigonus goes to do as the king commands. Hermione is put on trial. There is no real evidence, but Leontes has dispatched messengers to the oracle of Apollo at Delphos. The oracle proclaims Hermione innocent; it also warns that Leontes will be without an heir until the infant daughter is found. Leontes rejects the news, and a servant enters to tell him that Prince Mamillius has died. Leontes repents; Hermione dies of grief.

Meanwhile, Antigonus takes the baby to Bohemia. In a dream, Hermione's ghost names the child Perdita and tells Antigonus that because of his part in the abandonment of the child, he will never be allowed to see his wife again. Antigonus is eaten by a bear. The little girl, along with the gold and tokens left with her, is found by a Shepherd and his son. The Shepherd vows to raise her as his own.

Father Time, the Chorus, announces the passage of sixteen years. We are now in Bohemia, where Camillo has served the King of Bohemia since their flight from Sicilia. Camillo now longs to return home to see his country and the now-penitent king he left behind. Polixenes simply cannot do without the able administrator. He persuades Camillo to go with him in disguise to the house of the Sheperd's daughter that the king's son, Prince Florizell, has reputedly been visiting.

Autolycus, a likable rogue dismissed from service to Prince Florizell, swindles the Shepherd's Son out of some cash. He hears of the upcoming sheep shearing festival, and he resolves to use the celebration to con more money out of the revelers.

Florizell and Perdita talk before the festival. The two youngsters are obviously deeply in love, although Perdita is afraid of what will happen if the king finds out about their relationship. At the festival, Florizell declares his love for the shepherdess in front of his disguised father. The outraged king threatens to disown Florizell and execute Perdita before storming off in anger. Camillo promises to help the two young lovers; he tells them to go to the court of King Leontes, who will receive them as honored guests. He calls on Autolycus, who has been swindling guests at the festival, to change clothes with the prince so that Florizell can escape the country incognito. Afterward, the Shepherd and his son, fearing for the safety, discuss ways to approach the king with the news that Perdita is a foundling. Autolycus overhears them, and he hopes to win advancement by helping his prince. He pretends to be an important courtier and promises to bring them to the king.

In Sicilia, Paulina convinces the king never to marry again unless she chooses the bride. Florizell and Perdita arrive, and Leontes greets them warmly. But a messenger arrives soon afterward, telling Leontes that Polixenes has arrived searching for his son. Leontes promises to be Florizell's advocate. In the next scene, through a conversation between three gentleman and Autolycus, we hear of how Perdita's true parentage was revealed. With all present, the Shepherd and the Shepherd's Son produced the items found with Perdita, which prove without a doubt that she is Leontes' long lost daughter. The two royal families and their closest friends and advisors go to Paulina's house, where an artist has crafted a beautiful statue of Hermione. While they are viewing the statue, Paulina brings Hermione to life, miraculously resurrecting the queen. The reunited families and their friends go to talk of all that has happened in the sixteen years that they have been apart.

From

Sankari




References
http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/winterstale/summary.html

The Kingdom of Bohemia.

BOHEMIA 

Map of Bohemia

Bohemian Coat of Arms

 

Modern day Bohemia (Czech Republic)

Bohemia is the kingdom ruled by King Polixenes in the play 'The Winter's Tale'. Though the kingdom is featured in the play as having a coastline and a desert, research shows the kingdom of Bohemia should not have a coastline, because it is landlocked, and neither a desert. This error makes analysts wonder the reason why Shakespeare made such an error. A simple explanation that exists says that since The Winter's Tale's title itself suggests a fairy tale, the details of the play could have been imagined by Shakespeare based on basic settings.

The modern day Bohemia is the country of Czech Republic. Czech Republic is well-known for its green pastures and vast greeneries, plus the remnant castles of the ancient kingdoms. 

The picture above could be the current location of the grassland where Princess Perdita was shepherding. The picture is the rolling hills of Králický Sněžník.

Another fact to ponder would be the language that would have been spoken by King Polixenes and King Leontes. In Bohemia the people would have spoken Czech and in Sicilia the people spoke Sicilian but the language used in the play is English. This shows that that the royal family could be multilingual as they have access to the privilege of acquiring many languages. But how as as shepherdess, Princess Perdita came to acquire many languages shows how the play's fictional aspect comes to play.

Vimal.