SOURCE: Sanders, Wilbur. “The Jealousy of Leontes: Act I.” In Harvester New Critical Introductions to Shakespeare: The Winter's Tale, pp. 1-30. Brighton, Sussex, U.K.: The Harvester Press, 1987.

In the following essay, Sanders examines the issue of Leontes's jealousy, citing several conditions that may be said to cause his reaction to Hermione's successful coaxing of Polixenes to remain in Sicilia.

Critics need problems as slugs need cabbages, and I would not blame anyone who tensed in anticipatory resistance when I say that I am writing about The Winter's Tale because I find the play problematic. However, I do: I think it wonderful, moving, grand; but I am also niggled by small discontents which have a nasty habit of growing bigger the more I think about them. I don't believe I am alone in this.

For some readers the play is a sublime diptych, a two-movement symphony whose music...