How did the idea that Paulina magically turns a statue of Hermione into a living woman get started?
I was surprised when this apparently widely popular possibility came up in class because I thought the play shows that Paulina had secretly kept Hermione hidden for years, concocted the "statue" prank purely for dramatic effect, and that the statue (which she warns people not to touch, supposedly because the paint hasn't dried yet) was the real Hermione all along, waiting for her cue from Paulina to move and tell Leontes, "Gotcha!" What clues in the script suggest this was ever supposed to (possibly) be real magic in context?- This troper got the impression that that interpretation actually came about from a lack of clues. In Shakespeare's works, things tended to be a bit more spelled out (makes sense, given how it's all on stage and there are very few stage directions). So normally, one would expect at least one short bit where someone brings up Paulina's "hide Hermione and bring her out later" ruse. That she doesn't is probably what leads some to think that there was, indeed, some magical explanation. And let's be honest, it's not like Shakespeare hasn't used magical solutions to fix up hopeless romantic situations. Not to mention, this troper also got the impression that Shakespeare was invoking numerous fairy tale tropes, and that he was doing so to make it more believable that something magical happened. In any case, this troper is one of those who believes that the whole thing was a trick set up by Paulina, but that's the reasons she believes people do think it's magic.
- There's a Greek myth (Pygmalion), which given Shakespeare's general love of references to myths he'd probably be familiar with, which is basically about a sculptor carving a statue of a woman who is then brought to life and marries him. This troper took the ending as basically just being a reference to that myth. The whole play is somewhat structured like a fairy tale anyway, with Deus Ex Machinas appearing left and right. Ultimately, yes it probably is a trick being pulled by Paulina (considering she and Camillo appear to be the ones with the most sense) but there's absolutely cause for people to buy into the "magic fairy tale" element.
- One hint that the explanation is mundane: the statue is explicitly said to look the age Hermione would be in the present day, rather than at her disappearance. This seems to argue for it being the real deal disguised as a statue. (I guess it's not impossible that a statue could have been carved that looked sixteen years older, but what would be the point?)
