Posted by Bob on June 19, 2005
In Reply to: Now is the winter of our discontent posted by Hala on June 19, 2005
: Just wanted to ask, I was looking for the phrase 'Now is the winter of our discontent' 'cause of an assignment I had to do for school.
: In the site it said "The time of unhappiness is past". Thing is, where I've read it the meaning was more like 'The time of unhappiness is ahead/now'.
: That also sounded a bit more reasonable to me since it says 'now is the winter', as in 'now is a hard time (like the hard European winter)'...
: So basicly my questions are:
: Did the use I saw in the article (in school) was wrong, or is it another possbile use for the quote?
: Can anyone give me an example of how the quote can be used properly?
: Thanks in advance :)
I understand your confusion. The explanation should probably have included the rest of the sentence. "Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this son of York." Richard the Third opens the play by talking about opportunity. You might see it more clearly if we rearrange the words a bit: the winter of our discontent (is now) made glorious summer. Not that we should rewrite Shakespeare, but it's also clearer when an actor reads it.