The Winter's Tale | Leontes (Character Analysis)
Leontes is the king of Sicilia. His jealousy of Hermione and Polixenes precipitates the tragedy of the first part of the play. He acts irrationally against the evidence that shows Hermione to have been completely faithful to him. He plots to poison Polixenes, he imprisons Hermione, and he sends his defenseless infant child to a remote area of Bohemia to live or die as fate would have it. At the trial of his wife, Leontes denounces the truth of the oracle that proclaims Hermione innocent of adultery. Immediately following Leontes's rash speech, young Prince Mamillius dies, and it is...
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