It’s no secret that I dislike Macbeth. However, after reading the first few acts of The Winter’s Tale I’ve learned to have a little more patience for him. See, Leontes is at a huge advantage. Macbeth’s insanity and irrational judgement was influenced by his wife and excused by his court. He was being enabled. With Leontes the opposite is true. His most trusted subject alerts the other king of his plot and aids him in escaping. As we discussed in class, Leontes’ court isn’t afraid to stand up to him, something that may have changed Macbeth’s dive into complete insanity. While I’m not sure how Leontes’ story will end, already steps are being taken to protect him from himself. Hopefully he’ll fare better than Macbeth.
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It’s also worth taking into account the extraordinary compression of events in the first acts of both Macbeth and The Winter’s Tale. Both Leontes and Macbeth are in a kind of pressure cooker. Because we haven’t been prepared to see their delusions erupt, the characters can be hard to take. As far as Leontes goes, stay tuned. We know how disastrously things turned out for Macbeth.
I would have to agree that the way in which everyone stands up to Leontes (even his subordinates/inferiors) seperates him from Macbeth. Normally one perceives a king from this era to be almighty; one that makes important decisions and does not have to justify his actions or opinions to anyone. Although he refuses to admit to it, for the first three acts of the play, Leontes is indeed acting tyrannical. Reminiscent of Macbeth, we see extreme shifts of emotion within the character of the King, but–unlike Macbeth–Leontes seems to be able to follow through with his plans promptly. Due to the abnormal fits of behavior displayed by their husbands, the wives (or women) are the true victims in both plays.