I read up on a few Victorian appropriations of
The Winter's Tale and I came across an essay explaining an 1851 production done in New York. There were several changes from Shakespeare's original text, but one of note is that the character of Hermione was changed to fit into the ideal woman of the Victorian era. Instead of the Hermione who was the tragic queen Shakespeare intended her to be, the actress Amelia Warner interpreted Hermione's character to be "chaste, subdued and natural," and not at all like the strong-spoken queen who valiantly defended herself, her honor, and her daughter. The essay further states that this 1851 Hermione demonstrated all the appropriate traits of an upper middle class woman: " she was 'playful, graceful, dignified, and majestic."
As for the trial scene, a review from the
New York Albion dated 27 September, 1851 stated that
[Mrs. Warner's] pathos is of the genuine stamp...the trial scene cannot be surpassed. Its exhibition of physical weakness and moral power, of injured innocence and gentlest submission to the hard decrees of fate was as near perfection as it well could be (Bartholomeusz, 101-2).
 |
Not from the 1851 NY production of TWT ,
but a Hermione nonetheless from an
1887 production. |
After reading both the trial scene in
TWT and the essay "
The Winter's Tale in New York," I searched for what exactly the ideals of womanhood were during the Victorian era. Obviously, Queen Victoria was the ultimate icon of what a woman should be, so for middle-class women, that oftentimes meant pretending to be richer than they actually were, in order to fulfill that standard of the ideal woman. But even beyond that, the Victorian woman was expected to be pious, pure, submissive, and the "master" of domesticity. These ideals were the same both in Britain and in America. I came across a quaint little poem written to further the cause of the perfect woman:
Her eye of light is the diamond bright,
Her innocence the pearl.
And these are ever the bridal gems
Worn by the American girl.
I couldn't find the source of this poem, but it was very popular in the Victorian era, and continued to be until the feminist movement of the 20s.
So, to sum it all up, Amelia Warner's interpretation of Hermione fit quite nicely into the Victorian ideals of what a woman should be. I'm sure because of Mrs. Warner's role that this 1851 production of
TWT had such favorable reviews, which I'm guessing were written by men, and they liked that this Hermione was submissive and pure in her personality.
And, just for fun, here is a
quiz from the BBC to see how familiar you are with the ideal Victorian woman.
Sources Cited.
Bartholomeusz, Dennis. The Winter's Tale in Performance in England and America, 1611-1976. Cambridge [Cambridgeshire: Cambridge UP, 1982. Print.
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