Hermione: Dignity Under Accusation

Hermione is the most articulate character in the play and one of Shakespeare's most articulate women full stop. Her trial speech in Act 3 Scene 2 ('Since what I am to say must be but that which contradicts my accusation') is one of the great legal self-defences in the canon. She knows she cannot prove innocence, only assert it, and she does so with precision and without begging.

She is accused of something she did not do, imprisoned, loses her son, and appears to die. The play gives her no agency in any of this. What she has instead is complete moral authority. She is right, she knows she is right, and she refuses to pretend otherwise even when it would cost her less.

The statue scene in Act 5 Scene 3 is the most operatic ending Shakespeare ever wrote. Sixteen years have passed. Paulina draws back a curtain and shows Leontes a lifelike statue of Hermione. She tells him to 'awake his faith.' The statue moves. Whether Hermione has been hidden by Paulina for sixteen years, or whether something more difficult to explain has happened, is a question the play raises and deliberately refuses to close.