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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.
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 Delphi.
- She 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 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, a Sicilian princess.
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 Florizel.
Florizel
- 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.
Camillo
- An honest Sicilian nobleman, he refuses to follow Leontes's order to poison Polixenes, deciding instead to flee Sicily and enter the Bohemian King's service.
Paulina
- A noblewoman of Sicily, 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.
Autolycus
- He steals the Clown's purse and does a great deal of pilfering at the Shepherd's sheepshearing, but ends by assisting in Perdita and Florizel's escape.
Shepherd
- An old and honorable sheep-tender, he finds Perdita as a baby and raises her as his own daughter.
Antigonus
- Paulina's husband, and also a loyal defender of Hermione. He is given the unfortunate task of abandoning the baby Perdita on the Bohemian coast.
Mamillius
- The young prince of Sicilia, Leontes and Hermione's son. He dies, perhaps of grief, after his father wrongly imprisons his mother.
