Their overreaching intimacy reflects the inviolable masculine social order which orientated the society viewpoints. Just as their intimacy is overreaching, the masculine order society which keeps women out is unbalanced. When Leontes finds himself failing to persuade Polixenes to stay while Hermione succeeds, he realizes that his intimate relationship with Polixenes has been destroyed by the interference of a woman. His male authority is distained by weak femaleness. His awareness that the innocent male union has been stained leads him to chaos. Then his effort to push Hermione aside leads the plots to be tragic. All the persons representing love and kindness to him disappear one by one from the play. From the moment he decides to expel Hermione, his idyllic life is pushed into disorder. The break between him and polixenes reveals profoundly that the masculine social order will not be operated without the participation of women. Hermione takes a crucial role in the development the plots.
Shakespeare indicates his appreciation for Herminoe. When Hermione appears in the opening of the play, she is described as gracious, beautiful and kind-hearted. While Her conversation with Polixenes and Leontes reveals her wit and courage. In one word, all the virtues a woman should have are attributed to her. But she is arranged by Shakespeare to disappear until the last act when she reappears as a statue. While In the following acts, she is recollected by Leontes and the others as an idealized goddess. In Leontes" mind, Herminoe's eyes are stars, and "all eyes else dead coals". And her lips are "treasure"(V. 182). As we can see, in most of the play, Hermione's existence is a perfect icon rather than a character. Her role in the play symbolizes the female request for equality and the effort to break the male union. In other words, her action shows a possible ideal coexistence with men. Her mock dead is inevitable because in a masculine society, she acts too active and too witty to be accepted by the masculine world.
