『겨울 이야기』에 나타난 마키아벨르

A Machiavelle in The Winter's Tale : Paulina

This paper attempts to focus on the female character Paulina in The Winter's Tale based on the three political concepts such as inganni, virtu and raison d'etat of Niccolo Machiavelli in addition to the feminist approach. In this study, Paulina is represented as Shakespeare's supreme Machiavelle because she tries to do her best to recover the decayed Leontes Royal family and the chaotic Sicilia with her own benevolent and feminine quality. She is a kind of female dissembler and manipulator that Shakespeare created for some of his comedies and romances. In order to accomplish the social and familial reconstruction and the reformation of character in The Winter's Tale, Paulina makes use of many kinds of strategies such as disguise and dissembling(inganni), wisdom and courage expressed by verbal attack and silence(virtu). The raison d'etat, Machiavelli's supreme, ideal and political object, is represented and symbolized by the bringing to life or rebirth of Hermione's silent statue. Not only upholding the values of the feminine principle but also using assertion and forcefulness to do the action, the androgynous Paulina can be more praised and on the better position than any other character in The Winter's Tale.