Husbands, Bats, and Behaviours…
In Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, King Leontes becomes irrationally convinced, without concrete evidence, that his wife is cheating on him with his best friend, another King who has been staying with them as a guest. Leontes begs his friend to extend his stay but he declines. Leontes then observes his wife and friend talking together and when his friend announces that he will, in fact, stay longer–the belfry of Leontes’ mind opened up, and a bat flew in.
As I watched this play unfold I was reminded of a friend whose husband was certain she was having an affair with his best friend. She wasn’t. As with Shakespeare’s king, the evidence was sparse and totally derived from within his own mind and his subjective interpretation of benign circumstances.
Two marriages, four hundred years apart. One fictional, one real life. The marriages in both the play, and my friend’s life survived through the grace of the accused women. Neither of the men saw the injustice or the error of their ways.
In Shakespeare’s tale, the story twists and turns through sixteen years. In the end, the King’s marriage is restored after his long suffering wife forgives him. My friend’s marriage also survived. To be honest, in my opinion, not many women would have withstood the months of fierce accusations the way she did. The entire issue was resolved without any apparent resolution; the bat flew out of his belfry and the marriage carried on.
In both stories, the women bore the weight of forgiveness. Shakespeare was apparently making a point about the constancy of a woman for her husband. Not to question the Bard, or my friend’s choices, but neither husband was forced to take responsibility or to confront the pain they caused. In both of these cases, it seems the men moved on without much more than a shrug.
They say history repeats. I say people don’t change. These two husbands across the centuries stand as examples of how, in fiction or in real life, human behaviour remains remarkably unchanged.
Keep your joy.
Anne Milne is an every Sunday blogger, unless it’s a holiday weekend. Or summertime.
Cripes, I’d’ve made like a bat out of hell and flown the coop… to thoroughly mix metaphors… It actually happened, too, 20 years ago. At least by that time I had the brains not to go ahead and marry the guy.
Good for you to use your brains and avoid having a fox in your hen house… to continue with the metaphor…
Thank you for commenting and thanks for using the word “Cripes!”
Cheers,
A.
I don’t know Anne: in Winter’s Tale, King Leontes does recognize the error of his ways and shows contrition and responsibility for the ill effects of his jealousy: Act3.2 “…bring me to the bodies of my Queen and son; one grave shall be for both: upon them shall the causes of their deaths appear unto our shame perpetual.” Act 5.2:”…I saw her as I thought dead and have in vain said many a prayer upon her grave.” And :”What, look upon my brother! Both your pardons that e’er I put between your holy looks my ill suspicions.” Whether you find these declarations convincing is another matter of course! You have nonetheless identified an excellent topic for next year’s Forum series: toxic jealousy in Shakespeare. We’ve got one of the best ones written coming next year in Othello!
It’s a long play and this is a short blog… I know Leontes rues his losses considerably. I am by no means a Shakespearean scholar; I was struck by the forgiveness offered up by his patient wife after such an illogical fit of, as you aptly say, toxic jealousy. That behaviour still exists was really the point I was trying to make.
Thank you for such a thoughtful comment.
A.