Classicism and/or Romanticism: A Survey of Aesthetics in The Winter's Tale

This article aims at reading The Winter's Tale with respect to Hegel's argument in Aesthetics: Lectures on Fine Art. The researchers try to apply Hegel's notion of art to the artistic aspects of the mentioned play by Shakespeare. The play's aesthetic values will be examined and illustrated from two differing but interdependent classical and romantic perspectives based on Hegelian definitions pertaining to diverse epochs through which art and its representations were developed. The researchers will show that the play contains characteristics of both classical and romantic art forms, but this does not necessitate that Shakespeare believed in these notions and exploited them quite innocently. Rather, as the objective of this study will manifest, it will be proved that Shakespeare neither approved of the classical notions of art nor adopted the romantic version, but stood on the borderline in between and manipulated them intelligently and playfully giving a parodic version of both aesthetics.