When Shakespeare directs Leontes [Aside] in Act I, Scene 2, every audience sees a visceral, sexually explicit blizzard of jealousy as he announces his suspicions of Hermione’s infidelity.
When Leontes and Polixenes nostalgically recall their halcyon days as “twinned lambs that did frisk in the sun”, Shakespeare establishes a certain brotherhood between the two monarchs; however, this artificial familial love is quickly abolished when Mamillius’s winter blizzard arrives.
To assess whether blood really is thicker than water, one must consider Hermione’s love for Perdita, Leontes’s condemnation of her as a “bastard”, Leontes’s attack on Polixenes and the king’s lack of concern for his son.
These statistics suggest that euthanasia will likely be legalised in the coming years; however, I contend that this is not necessarily a positive things, considering the words of Caroline Spelman, a British MP, who notes that “the right to die quite quickly becomes the duty to die”.
