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Leontes
The king of Sicilia, and the childhood friend of the Bohemian king, Polixenes. He is gripped by jealous fantasies, which convince him that Polixenes has been having an affair with his wife, Hermione. His jealousy leads to the destruction of his family.
Read an in-depth analysis of Leontes.
Hermione
The virtuous and beautiful queen of Sicilia. Falsely accused of infidelity by her husband, Leontes, she apparently dies of grief just after being vindicated by the oracle of Delphos, but is restored to life at the play’s close.
Polixenes
The king of Bohemia, and Leontes’s boyhood friend. He is falsely accused of having an affair with Leontes’s wife, and he barely escapes Sicilia with his life. Much later in life, he sees his only son fall in love with a lowly Shepherd’s daughter, who is, in fact, the lost Sicilian princess.
Read an in-depth analysis of Polixenes.
Paulina
A noblewoman of Sicilia. She is fierce in her defense of Hermione’s virtue and unrelenting in her condemnation of Leontes after Hermione’s death. She is also the agent of the (apparently) dead queen’s resurrection.
Read an in-depth analysis of Paulina.
Florizell
Polixenes’s only son and heir. He falls in love with Perdita, unaware of her royal ancestry, and defies his father by eloping with her.
Read an in-depth analysis of Florizell.
Perdita
The daughter of Leontes and Hermione. Because her father believes her to be illegitimate, she is abandoned as a baby on the coast of Bohemia and brought up by a Shepherd. Unaware of her royal lineage, she falls in love with the Bohemian prince, Florizell.
Read an in-depth analysis of Perdita.
Camillo
An honest Sicilian nobleman. He refuses to follow Leontes’s order to poison Polixenes, deciding instead to flee Sicilia and enter the Bohemian King’s service.
Antigonus
A nobleman of Sicilia, and Paulina’s husband. Also a loyal defender of Hermione, he is given the unfortunate task of abandoning her baby, Perdita, on the Bohemian coast.
Autolycus
A roguish peddler, vagabond, and pickpocket. He steals the purse of the Shepherd’s Son and does a great deal of pilfering at the sheep-shearing, but he ends by assisting in Perdita and Florizell’s escape.
Shepherd
An old and honorable tender of sheep. He finds Perdita as a baby and raises her as his own daughter.
Shepherd’s Son
The Shepherd’s buffoonish son. Sometimes known as “the Clown,” he is Perdita’s adopted brother.
Mamillius
The young prince of Sicilia, Leontes and Hermione’s son. He dies, perhaps of grief, after his father wrongly imprisons his mother.
Cleomenes
A lord of Sicilia. He is sent to Delphos to ask the oracle about Hermione’s guilt.
Dion
A Sicilian lord. He accompanies Cleomenes to Delphos.
Emilia
One of Hermione’s ladies-in-waiting.
Archidamus
A lord of Bohemia.
