![]() ![]() ![]() When Johnston first read The Winter’s Tale, she saw it as a story about the friendship between Hermione and Paulina, and she wanted to explore that in a modern context. ![]() “Good queen, my lord, good queen: I say good queen.” She is the friend and defender of Hermione, who is the innocent, the blameless. Polly is, essentially, Paulina from The Winter’s Tale. “Whatever the odds, if Polly is cheering for you, you are a force to be reckoned with.” And if something terrible is going to happen, you want a friend like Polly. We get the news secondhand, not from a Clown but from Hermione’s best friend, Polly. Johnston’s YA novel Exit, Pursued By a Bear, we don’t see the unidentified teenage male pursue Hermione Winters, exit with her into the woods, and rape her. Poor Antigonus! We don’t see what happens when the bear becomes aggressive, but later we hear the gruesome details secondhand, from the Clown, how “the bear tore out his shoulder bone” and how “the bear half dined on the gentle-man: he’s at it now.” Perhaps that’s why he wrote the most famous stage direction of all time in act 3, scene 3 of The Winter’s Tale: “Exit, pursued by a bear.” William Shakespeare would agree with Louise Jenkins’ description of bears. In fact, I’ve found that in many ways they are a lot Opposed to hanging out with humans now and then. They are generally affable, loners mostly, but not Here, and they are usually not aggressive. ![]()
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