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By what means does Shakespeare convince us of the madness of Leontes in Acts I & II of The Winter's Tale?
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By what means does Shakespeare convince us of the madness of Leontes in Acts I & II of The Winter's Tale? The Winter's Tale begins with Leontes, King of Sicilia, trying to persuade his lifelong friend Polixenes, King of Bohemia, to prolong his nine month long stay with Leontes and his wife Hermione. Leontes flies into a jealous rage when Hermione manages to convince Polixenes to stay, whereas he could not. From there onwards Leontes begins a descent into irrational paranoia, believing his wife to have been unfaithful to him, his friend to be deceiving him and his loyal servant, Camillo, to be conspiring against him. The play is an example of a tragedy as defined by Aristotle, in which the protagonist destroys himself due to a fatal character flaw, poor judgement and a lack of self-knowledge. In the case of Leontes, the flaw is a jealous nature which makes him...
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