From Patricia Akhimie
Associate Professor of English at Rutgers University-Newark, and author of Shakespeare and the Cultivation of Difference (Routledge)
Twitter: @pakhimie
Accused of a crime she has not committed—adultery with her husband’s childhood friend, Polixenes—repudiated publicly by her husband, King Leontes, separated from her son, incarcerated, forced to give birth in a prison cell and immediately parted from her newborn baby, Queen Hermione defends herself in the only way she can in this scene. Made to stand before her accuser and an indifferent crowd of onlookers in a mockery of a trial, she proclaims her innocence in the most strident terms. Yet her words fall on deaf ears. Her call for justice is that much more poignant because she seems to know that she will not be exonerated no matter what she says or does, that no one can save her.
Hermione’s speech resonates with us today as she describes what it is like to be treated as suspect, to be treated as guilty without evidence of any crime, to be subject to overly harsh punishment, and to know that the justice system itself is biased against you. In Shakespeare’s time women were particularly vulnerable to accusations of adultery, their reputations could be easily by smeared by something as simple as gossip, and they did not enjoy many protections against physical and other kinds of domestic abuse. A husband’s trust and love was key to a woman’s safety and well-being. Powerfully, Hermione says that she does not care even for her own life, having lost everything worth living for. What she does care about is honor, her own and her children’s by extension. In order to clear her name she will invoke a greater judgment—divine judgment—represented in the play by the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi.