Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale | Enchantment after the Reformation?| Lecture 7

This lecture considers Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale as a meditation on re-enchantment in a world shaken by the Protestant Reformation. Moving from the suspicion and tragedy of the court to the renewal of the pastoral "green world," the final act resolves questions of misinterpretation, faith, and sacramentality. Drawing comparisons to Spenser’s The Faerie Queene and early-modern anxieties about appearance and reality, this lecture reveals how The Winter’s Tale both engages and transcends the religious conflicts of Shakespeare’s time. Touch, ritual, and the longing for reconciliation emerge as central forces in a world struggling to believe again. What is Re-enchantment: 0:00-3:00 Shakespeare's Romances: 3:00-5:52 Acts 1-3 Leontes's Anxieties: 5:52-20:49 Act 4 The Green world: 20:49-37:42 Act 5 The Resolution: 37:42-49:04 👉 Subscribe for more in-depth literary lectures on literature. #Shakespeare #TheWintersTale #LiteraryAnalysis #EarlyModern #VisionaryLiterature