The Winter's Tale

The Winter’s Tale is a late romance play in five acts by William Shakespeare. Originally published in the First Folio of 1623 but debuted onstage circa 1611, the play follows a man’s reckless jealousy as it destroys his family and his own conscience. Shakespeare’s play is based on the romance Pandosto: The Triumph of Time by the Elizabethan author Robert Greene published in 1588, with Shakespeare taking a more lighthearted approach to Greene’s story toward the play’s conclusion. The Winter’s Tale is sometimes considered one of Shakespeare’s problem plays because it has elements of both comedy and tragedy. Although not one of his most popular works, the play is still performed around the world.

This study guide refers to the Open Source Shakespeare edition of the text.

Content Warning: This text features discussions of sexism, racism, and murder.

Plot Summary

The protagonist of The Winter’s Tale is Leontes. Leontes is the King of Sicilia (Sicily) and the childhood friend of the Bohemian King, Polixenes. He is married to Hermione, Queen of Sicilia. He is jealous and possessive by nature, and can be stubborn and reckless when convinced of something, despite a lack of evidence.

Polixenes visits Sicilia for nine months, and Leontes tries to convince him to stay another week when he decides to return home. Though he is unable to convince his friend, Hermione obeys his pleas to convince Polixenes, who reluctantly agrees to stay longer. Leontes becomes convinced that Hermione loves Polixenes, despite his own desire for his friend to stay, and he fears Hermione’s baby is not his.

Leontes tells a Sicilian nobleman, Camillo, to poison Polixenes. However, Camillo instead warns Polixenes, who flees Sicilia. Everyone around Leontes fears for his mental stability. He learns Polixenes returned to Bohemia in a hurry. He suspects Camillo of treachery, but can’t prove it. Leontes then tells everyone that Hermione is unfaithful, that she’s carrying Polixenes’s child. The other Sicilian nobles don’t believe him and protest her innocence. Leontes insists she be thrown in prison. He sends two of his men to the Oracle of Delphi to confirm his suspicion so he may execute his wife.

While imprisoned, Hermione gives birth to a baby girl. Paulina, a friend, brings Leontes the baby in the hopes he’ll recognize her as his own and free Hermione. He dismisses the child and decrees she be abandoned outside the city. He awaits the Oracle’s prophecy and prepares for Hermione’s public trial.

Paulina’s husband and Leontes’s advisor, Antigonus, prepares to abandon the baby. Suddenly, word arrives from the Oracle: The accused Hermione and Polixenes are innocent. The baby is Leontes’s, and he will allegedly have no heir until his daughter is found. Leontes is incensed by the news, believing it to be untrue as he has a living son; however, his son mysteriously dies and Hermione dies from shock. A shepherd from Bohemia finds the baby on the coast and adopts her, Perdita, as his own.



Sixteen years pass with Leontes feeling guilt and grief over his decisions. Perdita, raised as a shepherd’s daughter, meets Prince Florizel, the son of Polixenes, and they fall in love. Polixenes, however, doesn’t want Florizel spending time with a non-noble. Perdita and Florizel decide to flee to Sicilia to seek refuge, and Camillo helps them.

Florizel poses as a diplomat on behalf of Polixenes, but Polixenes follows shortly behind and asks Leontes to arrest his son. Seeing the son and daughter he lost in Florizel and Perdita, Leontes agrees to advocate for them. Perdita’s adoptive father tells Polixenes of her origins, and Leontes realizes she is his lost daughter. The two kings make amends and bless the marriage of their children. Paulina takes company to a lifelike statue of Hermione, which comes to life, reuniting the royal family.