DRAMATIS PERSONAE
Leontes – The King of Sicily, and the childhood friend of the Bohemian King Polixenes
Hermione – The virtuous and beautiful Queen of Sicily
Camillo – An honest Sicilian nobleman
Paulina – A noblewoman of Sicily
The Winter’s Tale  is ultimately the story of Leontes’s redemption from the disastrous effects of his jealousy at the beginning of the play. Over the course of acts one to three, Leontes accuses his wife (Hermione) of having an affair with his best friend Polixenes, treating her as an adulterous criminal and scheming to have Polixenes killed, as well as ordering his own newborn daughter (whom he believes to be Polixenes’s) cast out into the harsh desert. 
 
 Leontes before the Statue of Hermione by William Hamilton (1790). Image via  Markings.
The Winters Tale Characters of the Play