Importance of Disguise in the play

Disguise can be defined as a  means of altering one's appearance or concealing one's identity. In the Winter's Tale , disguise is greatly important. The characters incorporate the use of disguise to reveal truths about each character.

In act 4 Polixenes and Camillo disguise themselves as shepards in order to investigate  Florizel’s constant absence in his royal curt.This disguise reveals that Florizel is engaged to Perdita, a commoner. With this revelation, Polixenes' controlling and furious side begins to reveal itself also. Hurt by his son's betrayal, Polixenes proclaims that the shepherd will be executed for allowing a prince to court his daughter, Perdita's beauty shall be "scratched with briers" and Florizel will be disinherited if he ever speaks of her again.


Disguise is also used when Florizel  decides to give up his succession and flee with Perdita to Sicilia to escape his father's rage. In order to flee without suspicion, Camillo asks Autolycus to exchange clothes with Florizel. Autolycus agrees, and the prince puts on the peddler's rags, which he hopes, will enable him to reach a ship undetected by his father. This done, Florizel, Perdita, and Camillo leave Autolycus and head to Sicilia. As Autolycus talks to himself, the Clown and the Shepherd come in. Still wearing Florizel's clothing,  Autolycus pretends to be a nobleman . The Clown is advising the Shepherd to tell King Polixenes how he found Perdita in the forest years before. Hearing this, Autolycus tells them that the king has gone aboard a nearby ship, and sends them in that direction. and this play a significane part in the revelation of Perdita's identity.

Perdita is the daughter of King of Sicilia. After being abandoned, she was raised by a shepherd in Bohemia. She grows up as a Shepherd girl falls in love with Florizel,  the Prince of Bohemia who is later stripped of his succession by his father for being engaged to a commoner. When her disguise is revealed however, it does not change the relationship between Perdita and Florizel; it strengthens it and made it easier for her to be accepted by his father.
Florizel also uses disguise and disguises himself as a commoner to ensure that Perdita does not know about his royalty.  This disguise is intentional as to ensure that Perdita’s love is true and that she is not swooned by his riches.

In conclusion, the physical disguise of characters shadows the theme that people are not always as they seem, and the importance of the inner spirit. In this process of change characters go through, Shakespeare uses physical disguise as a metaphor of the spiritual disguise some people possess, and provides the reader with an enlightened mind as well.