"The true interest of 'The Winter's Tale' lies not with Leontes but rather with the female characters - abused Hermione, faithful and tenacious Paulina and the beautiful, chaste and innocent Perdita."

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"The true interest of 'The Winter's Tale' lies not with Leontes but rather with the female characters - abused Hermione, faithful and tenacious Paulina and the beautiful, chaste and innocent Perdita."

To what extent do you agree with this view of the play?

In my opinion 'The Winter's Tale' is a play about human error. It is about the mistakes that people can make and how hard it is to forgive oneself for making them. Most of all it about how time can bring healing change. Leontes is the character who best exemplifies all of these themes throughout the play.

He is the character whose personality changes most and he is the one who is "resolved". However, the question asks whether the true interest of the play lies not with Leontes but rather with the leading women. It is certainly true that Hermione, Paulina and Perdita are not just predictable stereotypes of women but they are very similar to other female characters from the plays of Shakespeare. The best comparison of these is "abused" Hermione. She has a similar situation to Desdemona from 'Othello'. She is falsely accused and treated unfairly, though the obvious difference is that