Most of what Richard says at the start of the play, Has something linking to it: because Richard is deformed, he cannot be loved; because he cannot be loved, he must be a villain; because he must be a villain, he will stop at nothing for the throne. These excuses basically show that he is hiding the fact that he wants to play a ‘Bad’ character. As he is becoming more successful towards the throne, He is starting to enjoy it.
The fact that the deformity is an excuse shines through in the second scene. For even though he claims he cannot be a lover, Richard manages to make Lady Anne love him. She is mourning her father's death with the coffin on the stage, and yet Richard manages to convince her to marry him. He does this by Forcing Lady Anne to do it, By holding a knife against his throat, And saying he’s ashamed of himself, And he should be killed.
Lady Anne is overcome by Richard in that part because of the very status of women in this play. In order to have power, every woman must be married with a man who also has power. Therefore if Lady Anne wanted to maintain her status as royalty, she must accept Richard's proposal. What is truly amazing is that she agrees to marry him knowing that he will, at some point, kill her.
is a play within a play. It is primarily Richard's play, Shown by the skillful plots which he completes in each scene. This act starts with King Edward attempting to direct his own little play, getting Buckingham, , Rivers to pretend to be friends. Richard destroys this unusual scene with a single phrase, “Who knows not that the gentle Duke is dead?’’
The way in which Richard intervenes and destroys the false unity shows both the fact that Richard is in charge of the play, and that he is a strong force. He again plays a fake role by implicating the Queen's brother and sons in the death of Clarence. Richard skillfully asks who among them standing there is guilty, "And yet go current from suspicion." The irony of course, is that he is speaking about himself.
One of the themes which emerges in Shakespeare is that the state of the throne is reflected in the state of the country. So, with a sickly Edward on the throne, the overall health of the country is also sick. This is reflected by the citizens who are worried about having a child king, which proves that the country will now degenerate into a rubbish country.
The imagery of Richard as a false person appears again, this time being used by his own mother. Throughout the scenes in this act, Richard does not have to be present to have an impact. He is mentioned as having spoken to both the young children, and even the citizens are afraid of what he is capable of.
The Audience and Actors can have many different views of Richard. As the Audience sees everything, We can see what he does behind other characters backs. The audience might see mixed feelings about him. He has a deformity, So the audience might feel sorry for him, And they might think that he is that upset about it, They might think he needs to do bad things as bad things have happened to him.
The Actors however might feel he is a persuasive evil person, As I said earlier, He managed to make Lady Anne love him, Even after he killed her husband and father. She might see him as a persuasive man, But she might also see him as a sad man – Because of his deformity.
