The Winter's Tale draws on the tradition of pastoral poetry and on the myths associated with it. In Renaissance versions of pastoral, shepherds or other "rustic" folks (and sometimes aristocrats disguised as shepherds) discuss and act on such philosophical issues as the nature of time, of love, of art, and of nature itself. One critic says that the pastoral process is one of "putting the complex in the simple": supposedly complex ideas and people are put in supposedly simple settings inhabited by supposedly simple people. (But the process can also question or even overturn the distinction between aristocratic sophistication and lower-class simplicity.) The long sheep-shearing scene in 4.4 is the center, but not the only site, of the play's use of pastoral ideas and images.
The Workbook presents several Renaissance paintings on pastoral and related mythic themes. Your response to the Workbook assignment may suggest ideas for the Essay assignment:
(1) Write an essay about The Winter's Tale in
which you focus on a pastoral idea or image, or on the
dynamics of the pastoral confrontation between rustics,
aristocrats, and aristocratic rustics, or on the way the
play works with the relation of the human world--the world
of art, culture--to the world of nature.
OR:
(2) If you prefer, you can write an essay about The
Winter's Tale on a topic of your own devising. Part of
your task, in that case, would be to let your reader know
why this is an interesting topic, and how it illuminates
one's understanding of the play.