During the play, Shakespeare associates Paulina thematically with the well-known argument between Perdita and Polixenes over the extent to which men should collaborate art with nature. In the final scene, Paulina answers the question by having nature emerge out of art in her chapel.

In the scene when the characters return to Sicilia, although sixteen years have passed, Leontes is still in exactly the same place where he is left—mourning his wife, repenting his crimes. This frozenness, the sense of time halting until a curse is lifted, is typical in Leontes’ utterance of “bitter in my tongue as in my thought.” Now that sixteen years had past, Paulina had formed a subtle friendship with Leontes after realizing that his remorseful agony, and grew more receptive in her words as in “too true, my lord.” Besides, Paulina’s declaration of the impossibility of making a “perfect woman” comparable to Hermione alludes to Shakespeare’s Ovidian source regarding Pygmalion, in which a sculptor falls in love with the ivory image that he has sculpted. Paulina’s warning neatly reflects the possibility that Hermione may have been ‘preserved’ for the past sixteen years, which contributes to her facet of “magician” and “witch.”

In her next accusation, she appears as a moral historian who still tests Leontes on the sincerity of his repentance. Over the objections of Cleomenes she makes Leontes promise that he will not marry - and this despite his kingdom's anxiety for him to beget an heir. Her justifications for exacting the promise come in the speech that reveals her special interpretation of the oracular decree. And through her allusion to Apollo and Alexander, we can see that in a gap of sixteen years, she grows both emotionally and logically, yet always holding true to her determined voice and moral self. In directly confronting Cleomenes that “you are one of those that have him wed again,” and “my lord should to the heaven be contrary,” she lended her indignant sarcasm and tactful question to her opponents, just as she confronted Leontes’s threat with rebellion, a extension of her outspoken bravery. Neither husband nor King nor lords can deter Paulina from her vow to use "that tongue I have"  with "boldness from my bosom.” On the other hand, the speech “not have an heir till his child be found” actually points out Paulina's unwillingness to give up all hope that the baby has survived. For Paulina, the oracular decree coincides with her own deepest desires, reflecting her compassionate heart.

Feminism demands role models who not only critique the system but also prescribe alternatives and take concrete action. After forcing Leontes' to face the brutal result of his jealousy, Paulina assumes behind-the-throne control. Leontes agrees to marry again only with her permission, despite the pressure to produce a heir. As Carol Thomas Neeley describes, Paulina changes from "shrew to wise counselor and engineers the penance that will transform his tragic actions to a comic conclusion.”