Despite her feminist critique, in the final paragraph Adelman admits the limitations of a “patriarchal framework” in The Winter's Tale that restores personal and political happiness to Leontes . She is also satirical towards The Winter's Tale by exclaiming that its female characters are ultimately revealed to be "all good patriarchs all along". In response, to the pregnancy imagery that dominated the essay, Adelman makes the point that Hermione only returns when she is past childbearing age and that the only female character in the entire work who expresses anger is the "asexual" Paulina. Therefore, Adelman's final analysis is a very thorough critique from a feminist perspective. Adelman's work concludes by reconnecting The Winter's Tale to Shakespeare's canon of novels, highlighting Shakespeare's continuing paradox about "what it means to be a mother's son"”