A Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare is a chilling play full of misfortune and comedy. Themes of death and suffering are present throughout the work, but the way they are presented is both comical and strange. The way the dialogue takes place or the way the actions take place seem to be ambiguous. One of the story's cruxes takes place over a very short time frame, culminating in three pages and declining almost immediately thereafter. In this case, the deaths of Hermione and Mamillius occur and are resolved, followed soon after by their burial. The words of the text can be interpreted in different ways, especially in the way death is represented throughout the work. Death happens quickly and there is no real indication of when it is going to happen. Characters die off stage and as an audience we only hear about their deaths from second hand accounts. Is it therefore possible to believe everything that is said or heard, or is it possible that the sounds and images of the work are written as such to raise doubts? Shakespeare uses death in The Winter's Tale as a modem to interpret certain events ambiguously, ultimately leading to the final revelation. The way death is presented is a way to move the story forward and allows the character to adapt to the situation. Leontes has become a deranged king, one who can no longer separate his feelings from his actions. As the novel progresses, Leontes becomes more and more reckless, basing his actions only on his feelings, and no matter what he is told. A great example of this is his reaction to the Oracle, as he doesn't believe what he is told: “Hermione is chaste; Polixenes blameless; Camillo a real... middle of paper......llowers he had. Leontes has once again caused the death of someone else close to him, all because of his own anger. Death is perceived as an action that occurs and cannot be undone. Antigonus is dead, and this is the end, his daughter is gone forever and Leontes will not find peace until he has found what was lost. As a reader, you are led to believe that everything that is said is true, but in this play there are moments when you have to wonder if we can believe what has just happened. Death is a normally certain subject, and when it happens, as a reader you are expected to believe that it has happened, until the evidence proves otherwise. In the case of Hermione's death, the absence of staged deaths is peculiar. Why can't Hermione's death be presented to the public? It seems that Paulia was hiding something from both the public and Leontes.