Posthumus and Innogene Essay

The following passage is from Shakespeares Cymbeline Act 4 Scene 2. In the quoted lines Innogen identifies Clotens to be Posthumus due to Posthumus garment worn by Clotens. Innogen looks at Clotens body and his garments and says I know the shape ofs leg this is his flock. According to her, his foot is Mercurial and thighs Marcial. From the first act the reference is accustomed to specify a chaste Innogen who is attracted only to her husband, Postumus. However in this passage Innogene is made to speak admiring words close to Clotens which is ironic to the audience.Her instant decision based on the garment is a kind of an amusement to the audience who is aware of the identity of the corpse. Innogene believes that she know Posthumus well enough to identify him without the head or the jovial attend. The audience may expect better psyche from Innogene who till then did show good judgment in choosing Postumus to Clotens. This passage shows that Postumus and Clotens were more similar looking than Innogene would want to believe.These similarities are put forwarded by Clotens in I mean, the lines of my body are as well drawn as his in Act 4, Scene 1(9-10). She tries to sympathize some logical reason for the gruesome murder of her husband. The first possibility that comes to her mind is Pisanios involvement. She suspects him to bind revealed the details about late to Clotens. Everyone except Innogene knows that Pisanio has got nothing to do with this murder. Moreover Innogene is unable to think logic ally, for, if Pisanio was the perpetrator he may not have helped and sent her in pursuit of Posthumus.She concludes that Pisanio has joined with Clotens to kill Posthumus. In the passage Innogene call Clotens, irregulous devil Clotens. Clotens is interested in marrying Innogen. When he found out that this was not come-at-able because she chose to be the wife of Posthumus, Clotens decided to murder Posthumus and rape her. He goes to the wilderness in search of Post humous with pure hatred in his heart. Nevertheless he wears Posthumus garments while seeking out Posthumus and Innogene.This is ironic that he chose to wear the dress of his opponent in subduing him. He may have thought this would be a nice way to torture Innogene with the thoughts of her dead husband when he uses force on her. This may intensify the misery. This however goes a long way to show the cruel nature of Clotens. On the other hand the audience sees that Posthumus is aggrieved for ordering the death of his wife. He is repentant and tries to seek his own punishment by surrendering as a Roman soldier in to the hand of British troops.During the battle he takes the side of his native land and protects it from the enemy attack, fulfilling the duty of the son of the soil. Deception in costume plays its part here again when he dresses as an Englishman and fights with Iachimo. Posthumus and Clotens are two opposite forces juxtaposed to bring out their contrasting natures to inten sify the terminal good over evil concept. However Innogenes misunderstanding in identifying the corpse is the climax of this parallelism. This is an important setting in this play due to the death of Clotens and his misidentification as Postumous.Clotens has been the shadow of Posthumus throughout the play. At every mention of Posthumus there is a direct comparison drawn with Clotens as both(prenominal) are interested in noble Innogene. Death of Clotens signifies the death of evil and victory of good. However at this stage not all threads in the play are brought to a conclusive end. Moreover the difference between both is so strong that it needs to have a lingering effect for some time until alls well. thus this scene is a good device to conclude the play in a progressive gradation.