SOURCE: Sanders, Wilbur. “The Good Queen (Acts 2 and 3).” In Harvester New Critical Introductions to Shakespeare: The Winter's Tale, pp. 31-50. Sussex, England: Harvester Press, 1987.

In the following essay, Sanders contends that Hermione rescues The Winter's Tale from a descent into utter failure, noting that it is her presence that lends grace to the play despite Shakespeare's dramatic lapses.

There is a long-running critical dispute concerning the first half of The Winter's Tale, in which, before I'm through, I shall probably become disgruntledly embroiled: is it ‘tragic’? or is it not? At the moment, though, I'd prefer to stave it off with a provisional remark or two. Such as: whatever tragic potential the action contains, the Leontes we have been watching is hardly the stuff tragic heroes are made of. Neither is Polixenes. If there's any tragedy about, it would seem to attach to Hermione—beset as she is...