Ecocritical Consciousness in Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale

Abstract

The present study focuses on the eco critical elements in The Winter’s Tale (1610-1611) by William Shakespeare (1564 –1616), which is an outstanding example of the literary writing communicating ecological consciousness. Having examined William Shakespeare’s contribution to understanding nature it can be stated that nature is one of the key concepts of the author. He was highly aware of the nature and humans connection, importance of nature as both utilitarian and spiritual object. That is why Shakespeare’s concept of nature is colored with mainly positive tones. The most typical words for natural world are “fine” and “beauty”. In contrast to these words one can see the ugliness of the humans’ world – “foul”, that causes climate change, population growth, deforestation, biologically degrading cultivation practices. His creative approach to early modern ecologies licenses critical practices that extend the limits of his period's geophysical knowledge, and that suggests productive analogies with our ecological challenges. Recent ecocritics have been seizing such opportunities to help people rethink environmentally destructive economic and social paradigms

Keywords

• Shakespeare, The Winter’s Tale, ecocriticism, nature, symbolism