ABSTRACT
Whether through metaphors of grafting, planting, and fishing, or more direct references to storms, flowers, and bears, nature is unmistakably present in Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale and has captured the interest of scholars who discuss, for example, Perdita's flowers or, most recently, the various "gardens" in the play. When scholars address how nature is represented in the play, though, particularly when related to questions of gender, they tend to see both it and women in primarily symbolic terms. This chapter explains forecloses possibilities for both women's power and the power of Nature and reinforces the notion that men should and do dominate in the worlds of Sicilia and Bohemia. If one consider The Winter's Tale in the context of how one might use nature, then, he/she might see it as breaking down the simple gender binaries, of challenging the steadfast patriarchal systems so familiar to readers of early modern English literature, and creating openings for women to rule.
