LEONTES

king of Sicilia in Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale. Leontes is another of Shakespeare's many flawed protagonists destroyed by blinding jealousy. His irrational distrust of the behaviour of his wife and friend and his fear of becoming a cuckold render him little more than an obsessive bully. Unable to heed the advice of his previously reliable counselor or to trust the woman who has given him little cause for suspicion, Leontes loses everyone who is important to him, though he ultimately regains all but his son.