The Winter's Tale Acts II - III

So those of you who haven't read Justin's comment on my last post should. He brought up a great point about Shakespeare's characterization of Leontes. This made me start thinking of Leontes and I wondered what could possibly convince Shakespeare to create such a character. It seems like Leontes' character fails to be the believable human being that Shakespeare is known for - the ones that we can all relate to as we see their inward struggles and challenges.

Leontes seems to have no inward struggles. He is quick to blame and sticks with his anger. Imagine what would've happened had Hamlet been like this. He would've killed Claudius whether he was the real murderer or not. Then the play would end by Act II. I think that Shakespeare's point in this is to say how blinded we can be in our anger and jealousy that we could become a being like Leontes, who through his anger becomes less like a true character. I believe that Shakespeare is trying to show that true character is built through thoughts and reason.