IMAGINED REBELLION: WHAT DOESN'T HAPPEN IN THE WINTER'S TALE

Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale features a pattern of violent rebellion that only just fails to happen. Such moments of near-rebellion, best interpreted through the play's master trope of the moving statue, constitute an exploration of the causes of political rebellion and how best to avert it. Thanks to the close integration of its romance aesthetics and political realism, The Winter's Tale can be read as a "Mirror for Kings".