Then we are introduced to Richard himself. The minute he sets foot in his father’s house, he causes a stir amongst his uncles and their wives, who are present for the reading of Timothy Dudgeon’s will. Loudmouthed and not frightened to voice his thoughts, Richard at this point does not make much of a better impression upon the audience. However, what he does expose is that all of his puritanical relatives have faults somewhere, loudly proclaiming to his Uncle William, “I haven’t seen you since you gave up drinking. You have given it up, haven’t you? Of course you have; quite right too; you overdid it.”
His tone softens quite dramatically, however, when he notices that Essie is crying. He rushes over to comfort her, and it is at this point that we learn more of his reputation. Certainly, he is not afraid to speak openly about it, another part of his character of which his relatives do not approve. He tells Essie, almost with a sense of pride, about his lifestyle and how he gained such a title, and how he knew that “the Devil was my natural master and captor and friend.” Here, the reader learns of how Richard had a somewhat turbulent childhood, thanks to his parents, and how, now his father has left the house to him, “no child shall cry in it.” Essie is relieved and very pleased at the kindness that Richard is showing her, and he instantly makes a good impression upon her, despite Judith’s and the others’ efforts to make her a “good girl”, and to prevent her from living with Richard. “You should be burnt alive” exclaims Judith. At this point, the audience is shown a softer side to Richard’s character, a side that the other characters do not seem to realise, for all they can see him as is an overall ‘evil’ person who cannot even redeem himself to show consideration for a young woman.
At this point the modern day audience will make a connection between Richard’s Devil and the Christian God, and how similar both deities are to each other. Richard talks of how the Devil is his “natural master and captain and friend” and how he comforted him throughout his tormented childhood and his life in “this house of children’s tears.” We learn that the Devil is a much kinder, much softer god than the God which the Puritans worship; and it is this that makes Richard’s attitude to life so carefree, for he is not afraid of punishment in the afterlife.
However, the audience’s first impressions of Richard are perhaps at this point still not entirely in his favour. We still know, despite the kindness he displays to Essie, and despite what we have learned of his Devil, that he is despised by the majority of residents in Websterbridge and he has not done much else to improve his reputation. All of his lines throughout the play are direct dialogue, so that he is addressing other characters and does not actually reflect upon anything by himself at any point. Indeed, he is never shown alone; he is usually alongside one or more characters, and the dialogue that he uses in such situations is often loud and leering. He shows his younger brother Christy little patience, and his mother, embittered even more by her husband’s alteration of his will which has left her virtually destitute, soon becomes ill. However, so far all that the audience judges him upon is his usage of dialogue. All of the other things that have earned him such a reputation are reported actions, told to us through other characters. The audience have not actually witnessed any such actions. It is what he does for the Andersons that ultimately reveals his true nature.
When Anthony Anderson goes out to see the dying Mrs Dudgeon, Judith and Richard are left alone together and Judith is quick to tell Richard how much she hates him, for after Richard’s behaviour and insults towards her and her husband at the reading of the will her dislike of him appears to have deepened. She still believes that Richard has very little respect for her husband, for as soon as he enters the house he displays his usual laid back manner. Anderson appears to have let this fly over his head, but Judith is far from pleased that Richard should insult such a good man, and feels that he has no right to do so. However, when Richard makes to leave, Judith breaks down crying, frightened that she is disobeying her husband by driving Richard away. Her tears make Richard soften towards her, revealing another element of Richard’s softer side; that he cannot bear to see another human being suffer. He sums this up quite well when he says: “He [Anderson] wrung my heart by being a man. Need you tear it by being a woman?”
Judith calms down at this point and Richard encourages her to serve tea. For a brief while, there is calm between them, until Judith takes offence at Richard’s remark that “if any stranger came in here now, he would take us for man and wife.”. She is even further annoyed by the sardonic reply he gives to her sudden indignation, and is about to continue their argument when a group of English soldiers come to the house and arrest Richard, mistaking him for Anderson. Much to Judith’s surprise, Richard continues to play along with this pretence, and, though a little taken aback, she somewhat reluctantly follows suit. When her husband returns, Judith is unconscious; she has fainted from the shock of what has happened. It takes Anderson some time to get the whole story from her and as soon as he hears it, he gets out of town as fast as he can, leaving Judith alone this time with Essie, who called round in search of Richard. Despite Judith’s claims to Essie that Richard has indefinitely been sent to his death, Judith herself is full of confusion and worry, and does not know what to do. After a sleepness night which she spends fraught with anxiety, Judith finally decides to call upon Richard at the prison.
The audience now learns a new side to Richard; that whilst he does not show it outwardly, he does have a profound respect for Anthony Anderson, and this time he shows himself as braver than Anderson, for he has sent himself to his death in the place of another man, and Anderson has merely fled, an action which, this time, the audience actually witnesses, unlike the reported actions of Richard. Judith believed that her husband had run away to try and save Richard, but she soon realises that this is not the case, and she visits the prison to see if there is any way in which she can save Richard.
Richard, on the other hand, continues to be as defiant as possible. At this point in the play it almost seems as if he does not want to be seen as a good man; as if he does not want to let go of his reputation among the people. Again, this is evident from Richard’s usage of dialogue towards other characters; appearing loudmouthed in front of Judith when he had been speaking to her with almost perfect composure in the cell. When Judith asks him if he saved her husband’s life “for my sake,”(for that appears to be the way that, as a somewhat silly and romantic woman, she sees the motivation behind his actions), Richard is quick to tell her that he did it only because he could not bear to see another man hanged for an injust reason. It is clear that his profound dislike for the Puritan religion has fuelled his anger; he will not admit that he ever loved a Puritan or felt anything for them, but that he did what he did for Anderson simply because he did not want to see another human being suffer.
When Richard is led off to the courtroom for his trial, he stands obstinately before General Burgoyne and Major Swindon, and he does not appear to care that he is facing imminent death. Judith, however, knows his danger and is desperate to save him from such a fate, though there is nothing that she can do. Richard acts in the same confident manner that he has displayed throughout most of the play, but as his execution draws nearer and his neck is placed in the noose, he becomes increasingly worried and scared by it. Whereas in the prison and in the courtrooms he shows an attitude of not caring about being hanged, and is eager for his death to come quickly and be over and done with, when he reaches the gallows he becomes increasingly frightened which shows, once again, that he is not quite the hard man he tries to make himself out to be. This is an action that the audience does actually witness, and therefore contributes to the audiences’ reconsideration of the first impression of Richard.
It is then that Anderson appears and reveals himself to be the true Anthony Anderson for whom the others took Richard to be. When the soldiers make to hang him instead, he presents his safe-conduct and saves both himself and Richard. It is then that he announces that he believes Richard would make an excellent minister, and that he, Anderson, is better suited to a life in the militia. Richard is quick taken aback by such a suggestion, and tells Anderson that he feels more of a fool than a hero, but Anderson tells him otherwise.
In conclusion, what Shaw is trying to tell us from this play is that you should not judge upon first impressions; and that what a man appears as outwardly, is not necessarily what he really feels inwardly. The audience is quick to judge upon Richard’s character from the accounts we are given at the beginning of the play, but as the story progresses, we learn that there is more to the man than meets the eye, and that perhaps the comments and tales of his God-fearing relatives and neighbours are not enough to judge him upon. Richard, despite his great display of bravado and arrogance through his confident manner and use of dialogue, as well as having a reputation which he clearly feels proud of, is really a very good hearted man, and perhaps even more willing to save his fellow man than all his puritanical relatives.
