He also uses the fact that the two princes are illegitimate as an excuse to murder them, telling Buckingham ‘I wish the bastards dead’ (Act IV Scene 2 Line 19) But he has the common sense not to make a public matter and hires a private assassinator to do the butchery.
From the very beginning when Richard successfully woos Anne he reveals to the audience that he does not truly care about her at all and will unhesitatingly get rid of her as soon as she begins to get in his way. He says ‘I’ll have her, but I will not keep her long’ (Act I Scene 2 Line 233) and as soon Richard sees that the best way to the throne is to marry his niece he quickly disposes of Anne with little thought telling Catesby to ‘Rumour it abroad that Anne my wife is very grievous sick’ (Act IV Scene 2 Line 52) and ‘Give out that Anne my queen is sick and like to die’ (Line 58). With this rumour spread Richard can easily kill Anne off without raising suspicion as everybody is expecting her to die.
The play begins unusually with Richard himself giving a soliloquy. In it he brags to the audience about the ‘plots [I have] laid, inductions dangerous … Clarence and the king in deadly hate’ (Act I Scene 1 Lines 34-35). He cycles through his strategies with the audience saying ‘“G” of Edward’s heirs the murderer shall be’ (Line 41) is a rumour he has spread. This is also moderately dangerous for Richard to say as he is the duke of Gloucester. But Richard is just playing with fire and finds the slight danger amusing as it makes his life more interesting and exciting. When Clarence arrives with the prison guard he immediately transforms to a caring, loving brother but subtly plays on words saying ‘I will perform it to enfranchise you’ (Line 110) which means to Clarence that Richard will do anything to free him but the audience and Richard both know that he will do anything to free Clarence from life. This is the same case later when he tells Clarence ‘Your imprisonment shall not be long’ (Line 114) as the audience also knows that this is because he will be dead soon. As soon as Clarence is out of earshot, Richard mutates back into his true identity stating ‘Clarence hath not another day to live’ (Line 151). He is proud of his management of Clarence but tells himself and the audience ‘Clarence still breathes, Edward still reigns, when they are gone, then must I count my gains’ (Lines 162-163). His plan is not complete yet. Richard’s plan is rushed somewhat when there is news that the king is on his deathbed. He wants Edward to die but not before he has signed Clarence’s death warrant and so goes to Edward ‘To urge his hatred more to Clarence’ (Line 148).
He is ‘Deformed, unfinished, sent before [my] time’ (Act I Scene 1 Line 20) and may kill anyone anytime, but is not just pure evil. He is also an extremely intelligent character, with his quick thinking and clever use of words, who could possibly have been a great king if he would use his vast intellect for good, which is mainly why the play is not only a history but also a tragedy, as we know Richard could make something of himself.
The court of York is already very unstable, the king is ill, the heir to the throne is a child and his protector is Richard, ‘A man that loves not me nor none of you’ (Act I Scene 3 Line 13) and Richard uses this to his advantage. When Elizabeth threatens to g to the king about Richard he immediately comes out with all the crimes she had committed against the king.
‘In all which time you and your husband Grey
Were factious of the house of Lancaster
And Rivers so were you. Was not your husband
In Margaret’s battle at St. Albans slain?’
(Act I Scene 3 Lines 125-128)
So Richard blackmails them and they are unable to go to the king, as they are likely to be killed for the crimes Richard will remind the king of.
Richard recognizes the tension and instability in the court and only has to say a few well-placed words and then sit back and watch the court tear each other apart. When Richard goes to the dying king to profess making peace with him he knows that none of the court know Clarence is dead. They are left in disarray when Elizabeth inquires about him and Richard fakes horror that she says this when no one ‘knows not that the gentle duke is dead’ (Act II Scene 1 Line 80). The King and his subjects are distraught and tear each other apart with blame: ‘none of you would once beg for his life. O God, I fear thy justice will take hold on me and you, and mine and yours, for this’ (Lines 131-134).
Richard sees wooing Anne as an intellectual game. He tries many methods to win her over and is abrupt at changing his tactics. He is determined not to give up as first he fires names at her such as ‘Divine perfection of a woman’ (Act I Scene 2 Line 75) and ‘angel’ (Line 74) whilst she hurls names back at him like ‘diffused infection of a man’ (Line 78) and ‘hedgehog’.
When she is not taken in by his remarks he is forced to come at her from a different angle, He refuses having murdered her husband and father-in-law, but this is abruptly brought to a halt when Anne reveals proof as ‘Queen Margaret saw [thy] murd’rous falchion smoking in his blood’ (Lines 95-96). When she catches him out all he can do is give a light-hearted ‘I grant ye’ (Line 104).
He then turns the blame over to her, ‘[your] beauty was the cause of that effect. [Your] beauty that did haunt me in my sleep to undertake the death of all the world’ (Lines 126-128), to which she replies: ‘If I thought that, I tell thee, homicide, these nails should rend that beauty from my cheeks’ (Lines 130-131).
As one last resort he cleverly offers himself for her to kill, as he knows that she could never murder another human being, and as he thought, she cannot be the executioner however she is happy for him to commit suicide. Richard is put on the spot here, as he has no intention of killing himself so when prompted for the second time Anne cannot tell him to kill himself again.
Richard makes it appear to Anne like she is in charge and in control over his life but even though he is taking a huge risk he knows people very well and can judge when and where a tactic will be appropriate, so really he knows that he is not truly risking his life.
To Anne, Richard is absolutely romantic and would be willing to die for her happiness so she cannot possibly kill somebody who ‘loves her’ so much. This is just a clever ploy to win Anne over and it works as Anne gives him her ring.
All of this takes place in front of the previous king’s (Anne’s Father-in-law) corpse, which shows Richard has no respect. It is also a bit suspicious that Anne, after meeting a man for the first time could agree to marry him after one conversation especially if the man had killed her husband and father-in-law and he was ugly and had a hunchback.
Richard has a complete disrespect for the Divine Right of King. He does not care who he murders, if they are in the way of his path to the throne they are as good as dead already. The Divine Right of Kings says that God chooses the next king, who would be the oldest son but Richard heartlessly slaughters every person ahead of him in the bloodline of heirs to the throne. He woos Anne in front of the dead king’s corpse and does not think twice about it. To him this just makes it more of a challenge and therefore more exciting.
He offers to take the King’s coffin to Chertsey and Anne is taken back by this act of generosity and hands the coffin over gratefully. As soon as she has left the room he orders the corpse to be dumped in Whitefriars and doesn’t even attempt to give the king a proper honourable burial.
When Clarence enters with Brakenbury in the first scene, Richard immediately transforms into a loving, kind brother concerned with his welfare. He feigns surprise at his own rumours to throw people off his scent and edges it towards the king’s wife. Clarence is duped into it. Richard tells Clarence ‘I will unto the king, and whatso’er … I will perform it to enfranchise you’ (Act I Scene 1 Lines 107-110) this is hypocritical of Richard as he intends to do nothing of the sort but Clarence is fooled into believing Richards lies.
It is quite admirable that Richard can flatter and entice people using only adroit words very cunningly placed to convince people that he is a compassionate innocent man.
Richard is also a great self publicist and will do whatever it takes to make himself look better than others, not caring if he has to diminish his family name and spreading lies about his own mother to do so. He shows this when he tells Buckingham to ‘infer the bastardy of Edward’s children … appeared in his lineaments’ (Act III Scene 5 lines 75-91). He spreads rumours of how Edward was illegitimate and freely discredits him and his sons but tells Buckingham ‘touch the sparingly, as ‘twere far off, because, my lord, you know my mother still lives’ (Lines 94-95) as he is being slightly silly, he doesn’t care about his mother too much but he still slightly respects her enough, and even lets her shout at him and curse his name when he is king when he could have just had her killed.
By now all who stood in his way have been murdered and all Richard has to do is convince the citizens and religious people to make him king. He is very adept going about this and plans most of it out before hand: ‘if you thrive well, bring them to Baynards castle … with reverend fathers and well learnèd bishops’ (Act III Scene 5 Lines 98-100).
When the mayor and citizens arrive to make him king he acts as if he does not want to be disturbed from praying. This is all part of his aggregate scheme to make himself seem as innocent and perfect to be king as feasible, he has already shown that he doesn’t worship God at all.
They send Catesby, the messenger, to him who returns telling them ‘He is within with two right reverend fathers … to draw him from this holy exercise’ (Act III Scene 7 Lines 60-63). The people are lead to believe Richard is holy and innocent. Buckingham also takes this opportunity to put down Edward some more and make Richard look again saying ‘Ah ha, my lord, this prince is not an Edward. He is not … on a lewd love bed, but on his knees at meditation’ (Act III Scene 7 Lines 70-73).
When he finally appears he arrives between two reverends for yet more self-publicity. He acts shocked that people should want him to be king and objects saying ‘so mighty and so many my defects’ (Line 159), ‘the royal tree hath left us royal fruit’ (Line 166) and that the next king will ‘make (no doubt) us happy by his reign’ (Line 169). He is being humble and modest so as the citizens are convinced it is not his ambition to be king and they therefore cannot accuse him of murdering the heirs to the throne.
Buckingham feeds Richard lines all the time making him look better and better and Richard is dependant on him in this scene but as soon as Richard has what he wants he will not care about Buckingham anymore but Bucking ham is allowing himself to be used as he has been promised Hereford by Richard.
Richard convinces them enough that he does not want to be king that they leave in disappointment. After they leave he mocks feeling bad that he has disappointed and calls them back saying that he will bear with being king for their sake. So now the citizens think that they have a true, holy, modest king with their best interests at heart and someone who wouldn’t give every thing just for the power. Of course the audience knows that Richard is the opposite of all this. Richard has succeeded in becoming king.
Shakespeare is very much like Richard in this way. He doesn’t care who he offends or if he diminishes their family name as long as he gets his money and looks good in front of queen Elizabeth. Richard may have been a kind hearted loving man who didn’t deserve to be killed at all but Shakespeare has made him an evil tyrant only to get into the good books of the Queen by giving her grandfather justification for disrupting the Divine Right of Kings and murdering an innocent man.
Shakespeare has given Richard III a bad name forever and even today we think of Richard as a brutal, ruthless tyrant, but Richard may not have committed these murders at all.
To make Richard seem more abhorrent, Shakespeare takes event out of chronological sequence. When Brackenbury first appears he is leading Clarence up to the tower. We know by historical records that Brackenbury wasn’t appointed guard of the tower until a lot later in the play. This mainly just makes it easier to act instead of having two different prison guards one is also a lot easier to recognize.
Margaret is the main person who is taken totally out of context and sequence to make Richard look evil. When she first emerges to put Richard down in Act I Scene 3 she would in real life have been in exile in France. It is also very unlikely that even if she wasn’t in France that she would be in the court of York after being defeated at the battle of Tewksbury and would especially not be shouting and cursing members of the York faction. She would have simply been put to death without a thought, as she is an enemy to them.
The next time Margaret appears watching her curses come true in Act IV Scene 4 she would in real life have been dead. Shakespeare feels the need to bring her back to life here to remind the characters that she was right and it is important that they wish they had listened to her and wish to learn how to curse like her. It shows their true hatred for Richard even though they are his close family and once again shows his wickedness.
Shakespeare also juxtaposes Richard’s evil directly with Richmond’s piety to further enhance his sinfulness. Richmond is portrayed as a perfect, holy saint of a man who would only ever hurt someone if it would help others. This of course is Elizabeth’s grandfather and she would have been flattered by this virtuous interpretation.
Putting something good directly against something bad makes it seem all the worse and Shakespeare takes advantage of this to the full and right the way through Act V Scene 3 the scene is constantly switched between the two. This is a clever tactic to use as it makes Richard look wicked and at the same time makes Richmond look saintly and full of equanimity as he cares for his supporters.
So Richard and Shakespeare are in reality quite similar to one another in certain aspects. They both wish to achieve a goal not caring who they have to hurt or crush if they have to do it to accomplish it. Whilst Richard murders and manipulates people to become king, diminishing his family name as he does so, Shakespeare takes an innocent character and turns him into an evil tyrant to be forever hated and manipulates history in such a way as to destroy one man’s name for centuries to come.
Shakespeare may be a well respected playwright and historical figure but it is fairly clear that he doesn’t care who he has to put down to achieve such a high status. Richard III and Shakespeare are one and the same when you look deeper.
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