Living Art

It is unclear in the text of the play if Paulina’s statue is stone that becomes a living being (as Pygmalion’s does in Ovid’s Metamorphoses) or if Hermione never actually died and is just holding really really still. Paulina says that she is about to perform some magic to bring Hermione to life, but she uses no fantastical terms of conjuring.

‘Tis time, descend: be stone no more: approach:

Strike all that look upon with marvel. Come,

I’ll fill your grave up. Stir. Nay, come away.

Bequeath to death your numbness…(5.3.121-5)

These lines sound more like a woman trying to comfort her sister at the loss of a partner. “Come on, you can move on with your life now. Look how happy it will make everyone around you if you get out of bed and come talk to us.”

It is my belief that the trick Friar used for Hero in Much Ado About Nothing is the same one Paulina used for Hermione. A man as filled with rage as Leontes’ would not have actually checked to make sure his wife was dead, and Paulina knew as long as Hermione stayed down, she was free. It makes more sense to have Paulina stealing away to a removed hut several times a week if Hermione is living. Otherwise, Paulina could have commissioned her statue in a place that wasn’t as inconvenient to get to.