Trace the Development of Richard of Gloucester’s Character and
Political Ambitions.
The character of Richard of Gloucester changes greatly throughout the course of Henry VI part Three. He grows more selfish, and his political ideas become twisted with the thought of himself becoming monarch.
At the beginning of the play, Richard is very much in support of his father the Duke of York. He sits with his father at the throne which they have captured and defends his brothers and father.
Throughout the play he is a murderous character. In his speech in act three, scene two, starting on line 124, Richard speaks of empowering himself on the throne and killing off not only his enemies, but everyone who stands between him and the crown. At the start of the speech he talks about his plan as if it is a distant fantasy that he knows he cannot complete, referring to “the crown, being so far off,” but by the end of the speech he is convinced that he will do it, or at least die trying, with the words “Can I do this, and cannot get a crown?/ Tut, were it farther off, I’ll pluck it down.”, meaning even if the crown was harder to obtain, Richard would still attempt to get it. He talks of killing his brother the duke of Clarence, his other brother the king, and Edward Duke of York. Richard believes himself cursed by God for his body being misshapen, but wants to claim the crown as a sort of compensation for his physical deformities. The words “she (love) did corrupt frail nature with some bribe/ To shrink mine arm up like a withered shrub” show that Richard believes love is somehow the force that gave him his ugliness. Richard says he is without love in line 81 of his speech on page 161. ‘And this word ‘Love’, which greybeards call divine,/ Be resident in men like one another/ And not in me’
