Richard wants to become king as he is power hungry.
In many ways Buckingham is a lot like Richard, he is very politically aware and helps come up the plans to make Richard become king like theone where he gets Richard to ‘stand between two churchmen’ when the public come round.
Buckingham is Richards right hand man and through out the play he does his best to make Richard become king, at one stage on the play he does this by spreading rumours about the current king. He does this so that the people will want a new king and so Richard can become king.
In act 4 scene 3 we find that Buckingham has a conscience when he is asked to kill the princes Buckingham answers ‘give me some little breath, some pause, dear lord’. That quote shows how buckinghams conscience needs some time to think about whether he shall kill the princes. I think Buckingham has a problem about killing the princes as they are only young and innocent.
Buckingham helps Richard become king as he is promised riches, power and the earldom of Hereford but when he thinks about killing the princes Richard gets angry as he does not want someone who thinks about orders they were given, so Richard does not give Buckingham the reward that he was promised. This makes Buckingham angry so he brings an army to kill Richard but a storm disperses the troops.
Buckingham aand Richard need each other to be as strong an example of this would be when Buckingham spreads the rumours about king Edward and the people don’t say anything but then when Buckingham gets Richard to ‘stand between two churchmen’ the people begin to want Richard to become king.
Richard wants to have more power than Buckingham an exmple of this would be when Richard says ‘I will not yield to you’. Which means I will not do what you want me to do.
Richard and Buckingham both try to manipulate each other they do this by being overly friendly to one an other an example of this would be when Richard calls Buckingham his ‘other self’ and ‘my dear cousin’ Richard is overly friendly to Buckingham as he knows that he needs him to become king Richard uses this flattery to manipulate Buckingham.
In this play Richard is presented as deformed evil person but he was not really like that. Elizabeth 1st presented Richard like this as she wanted to make Richmond one of her relatives to look like a great man and England’s saviour. So she got a man called polydore vergil to write the history of England the way she wanted it. Elizabeth 1st did this so that the Tudor dynasty could be legitimised. Vergils arguments have become known as the Tudor myth. It said that Henry 6th illegal seizure of the crown resulted in the god given order to be broken and all the disasters that followed including the bloody war of the roses and Richard 3rd evil reign. Vergil also claimed that Henry tudor rescued England by bringing peace and stability by uniting the house of york and the house of Lancaster .
There is no evidence to suggest Richard 3rd did any of the crimes he was accused of.
There are many themes used in this play one of these include appearance and reality, Richard is a great actor who has the skill to manipulate people through clever use of language and false words. Richard shares many of these skills with the audience and whilst other characters are on stage and unaware of what’s happening makes the play very interesting to watch.
Fate and religion are also themes which are explored in the play. Mary curses everyone who had anything to do with her children’s death.. This quote shows how she wants the people who had anything to do with her children’s death to die. Buckingham has a dream about Richard pushing him off a boat.
When the murderers go to kill Clarence they talk about what will happen to them if they murder Clarence
Conscience is a important theme in the play as some chareters believe if you do bad things you will go to hell
The audience respond to these themes as the audience believed in heaven and hell and so they could understand the problem that the characters were in.
In this scene Buckingham and Richard achieve there motives by using role play they do this by using it to manipulate people. An example of role play being used in this would be when Richard stands ‘between two churchmen’ so that he seems a good man. These churchmen were used as props because back when the play was set it was important for a king to religious and the church men are used to signify goodness.
In this play lots of manipulative language is used some of these include juxtapositioning, rhetoric and irony.
An example of juxtapositioning used in this scene would be when Buckingham talks to the major about Richard saying that he is not an Edward’ ‘lulling on a lewd love bed but on his knees at meditation. This is used as it shows two contrasting characters and shows how ‘good’ Richard is compared to Edward.
An example of irony used in this scene would be when Richard says ‘since you will buckle fortune on my back. I must have patience to endure the load’ .This is an ironic statement as they did not put the ‘fortune’ on Richards back but he made them chose him.
An example of rhetoric used in this scene would be when Buckingham put forward reasons for Richard to become king in a very persuasive way. Buckingham tells Richard that it is his ‘right of birth’ to become king, this example of rhetoric is used to manipulate the citizens into thinking that they chose him to be king.
