• Winter's Tales, Shakespear

• Introduction
• Short Summary
• Detailed Summary
• Summary Act I-Scene-I
• Summary Act I, Scene II
• Summary Act II, Scene I
• Summary Act II, Scene II
• Summary Act II, Scene III
• Summary Act III, Scene I&II
• Summary Act III, Scene III
• Summary Act IV, Scene I-III
• Summary Act IV, Scene IV
• Summary Act V, Scene I
• Summary Act V, Scene II
• Characters in "Winter's Tales"
• Leontes, King of Sicilia
• Hermione, Queen of Sicilia
• Perdita: the shepherdess
• Character of Camillo
• Polixenes: King of Bohemia
• Florizel, Prince of Bohemia
• Character of Paulina
• Winter's Tales Themes and Topics
• Top 10 Quotes from Winter's Tales
• Best Quotes from Winter's Tales

Paulina Character: Discuss the character of Paulina, a great loyal to the queen and king

Paulina is the wife of Antigonus, a lord to the king. The couple has been very true to the king and influential. Where the husband tries to convince the king not to punish the queen, there the role Paulina cannot not be set aside in the course of the play. Whilst the queen is imprisoned and has begotten a child, she is the one to visit the queen seeking the child so that she may meet the king with his new born baby girl whose sight might soften the decision of the king. She requests the queen to give him the child so that she may persuade the king with the innocence of the child to let go the queen:

"The silence often of pure innocence
Persuades when speaking fails".


The king is in his room in deep dejection over the supposed disloyalty of his queen and the fleeing of Polixenes with Camillo. Paulina enters the room of the king despite the guards' stopping her. She tells the king of the new born child and pleads innocence for the queen but Leontes is not willing to listen. He orders Antigonus to burn the child:

"My child? away with't! Even thou, that hast
A heart so tender o'er it, take it hence
And see it instantly consumed with fire;".

The king also wants to punish Paulina but she is spared upon the request of her husband, Antigonus. He also requests and convinces the king not to kill the child. Paulina is furious and accuses and abuses the king over all this. Later, when the oracle's prophecy and message have arrived, she hides the queen till the time the lost child is to be found. She keeps the queen away from the king deliberately so that the king does not forget the poor child and his feelings remain strong for his evil act of charging his wife. Since her husband dies by attach of a bear in Bohemia, therefore; later in the play the king gives her the prize of the marriage with Camillo. This is so because she has prized the king with the gift of Hermione who was just hidden not dead.