The Winter's Tale was written in 1611, after Queen Elizabeth was on the throne for 44 years. Queen Elizabeth was an extremely powerful ruler, and was dubbed "the Virgin Queen", which highlighted her independence from men. It was highly unusual for women of the Elizabethan era to be such strong individuals, and Shakespeare may have been influenced by her rule. Never in another play before The Winter's Tale had Shakespeare used three strong and unique characters as the main focus in his work. Shakespeare's later views on women were very ahead of his time, as the Elizabethan view on women's status was that they were to be subservient and not loud or strong characters like Paulina, Perdita and Hermione. These three women are used by Shakespeare to represent rejuvenation, strength and innocence, which contrasts with the men of the play, who are governed by loss and death. The male characters...