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“There is no tongue that moves”
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healing process mimics that of alchemy: “Alchemy, imitating
the natural generation of diverse species, achieves the
conversion of base
—
‘diseased’
—
into perfect
—
‘healthy’
—
metals and thus resembles medicine, for it replaces disease by
health” (Pagel, 1982: 260).
So it is only when Leontes suffers the loss of his son, who
may represent his double or alter-ego, as well as (he thinks) his
wife, is he freed from the feelings of anger and jealousy that he
himself generated, and thus able to recognize and appreciate
Paulina’s role as his newly-licensed physician, one now granted
by him the right to speak freely as she recounts his many
foolish acts. Paulina is, for the first time, allowed to speak
before Leontes and his court, not as a woman but as the king’s
healer: a person to be greatly respected and even revered. We
know Leontes has come to trust her when he says: “Go on, go
on. / Thou canst not speak too much. I have deserved / All
tongues to talk their bitt’rest” (3.2.209).
Now more aware of her status as a licensed physician and
noting the king’s first signs of repentance, Paulina apologizes
to her patient
—
“Alas, I have showed too much / The rashness
of a woman!” 3.2.216)
—
and replaces her radical treatment
with a much milder one, which prevents the desperate Leontes
from becoming infected with another emotional plague. Now,
instead of telling him the truth about the status of his wife, she
lies to him: “I say she’s dead. I’ll swear’t. If word nor oath /
Prevail not, go and see” 3.2.198-99). Paulina believes that this
deception
—
telling the king that his queen is dead
—
will allow
the three “injured” family members to undergo certain
transformations in order to be healed. Her deception creates
the space and time that healing requires.
While the mother (Hermione) and daughter (Perdita) are
kept alive and free from any interference or infection, the
former preserved by Paulina in her secret shrine and the latter
on a remote island, the king is also sustained in a state of