Forgiveness and Reconciliation Theme Analysis

Throughout Cymbeline, characters make bold decisions that are not easily undone or forgiven, such as Cymbeline’s banishment of his son-in-law, his punishment of his daughter, and his refusal to pay tribute to Rome. Despite many characters’ seemingly irrevocable actions, moments of forgiveness and reconciliation guide the play to its happy conclusion. Identified alternately as tragicomedy or romance, Cymbeline operates within these genres’ demands. Tragicomedies and romances tends towards the comic, and end in moments of regeneration or rebirth. Not unlike the “problem plays” All’s Well That Ends Well, Measure for Measure, or The Winter’s Tale, Cymbeline contains moments of violence and hopelessness, but ends in repair. Through this artistic choice, Shakespeare makes a bold claim that when all is lost, reconciliation proves to be, quite literally, the only way forward.

Shakespeare portrays so many irrevocable and unforgivable actions that it seems impossible that Cymbeline won’t end in utter despair. Posthumus, for example, takes a bet that will end in violence regardless of the outcome: he promises to fight Iachimo if Iachimo fails to seduce Imogen, yet, if Iachimo succeeds in seducing Imogen, Posthumus will punish her. Furthermore, when Posthumus takes Iachimo’s “proof” of Imogen’s infidelity as true, he calls for Imogen’s death, which appears to be an irrevocable choice.

However, even after acts that seem final and unpardonable, the characters manage to overcome the choices they’ve made and move towards repairing the breach. Through tragic personal moments—such as the loss of a loved one’s life, impending death, or a loss in status—characters experience a despair that leads them to repent and forgive. For example, once Posthumus believes that Imogen has been killed at his request, he regrets his brash punishment, even to the point that he yearns for death in battle. Even the Queen—the play’s most evil character—ultimately repents and confesses her treacheries once she is mad from despair at the loss of her son. Furthermore, after Cymbeline nearly loses his royal status and kingdom, he regains a sense of gratitude and adopts a position of forgiveness when all is recovered—he resumes the tribute payments to Rome and pardons several characters who have crossed him. Personal losses, therefore, open the characters up to reconciliation of broken relationships, both interpersonal and political, and those who have been wronged (Rome, Imogen, etc.) are generous with forgiveness and love.

When considering the leaps the characters take in their journeys from revenge to reconciliation, it’s important to recall the role of source material, both historical and fictional, in this play. Shakespeare’s sources document a real King Cymbeline, who did keep peace with Rome, which shows that the play’s resolution is historically determined. What’s more, Cymebline’s sons Guiderius and Arviragus (who were stolen from their nursery in the play and then returned as adults by play’s end) survived him as heirs in real life, again showing the play’s happy ending to be historically accurate. As for the fictional characters of Posthumus and Iachimo, Shakespeare lifts their storyline from a tale in Bocaccio’s Decameron, which ends in the reconciliation of two friends after their wager over women’s chastity. Thus, Shakespeare’s fictional and historical sources account, in part, for the play’s happy ending. By using extreme examples of actions that seem irrevocable—and tempering these into moments of forgiveness through the vehicle of loss or impending loss—Shakespeare dazzles the audience with highs and lows before giving the soothing reconciliation that the audience (based on history and Bocaccio) might expect.