Richard’s cruel and zealous mind also humiliates people to show his authority over them.
When he asks “Naught to do with mistress Shore?” to Brakenbury he might possibly punning on ‘nought’ and ‘naught’ meaning ‘nothing’ and ‘to have sex’ to possibly deliberately make Brakenbury feel inferior. The language used could be said if though it is to a small child in a soft and sympathetic way even though he is not a child.
In Act 1 Scene 2 Richard humiliates another person by screaming at him in a boisterous way “unmannered dog, stand thou when I command” this person could be embarrassed or frightened because this new power has downgraded him to a canine. The language is harsh because words like ‘unmannered’ and ‘command’ make us think that Richard is the master (what he wants to be) and everyone else is the servant. They might be shouted to emphasise the comparison of the human and the dog.
Even though he humiliates others so he can feel more important, he can also make himself seem humiliated by letting Anne rise above him.
When he tries to convince her that they should be wedded, she spits and he says, “Why dost thou spit at me?” but he uses a puzzled and shameful language to suggest he needs her.
Because he feels that what he is saying is making an impact, he offers her the chance to kill him. When he acts to achieve there marriage he does it very cunningly and bravely, as this stage direction tells us: “he lays his breast open; she offers at with his sword” he hopes that she will sooner marry him than kill him. However, because Richard is her husband’s killer, if she wanted to kill him it would have been quick and painless because he placed the knife on his breast and under that is his heart. If he really wanted to show his love perhaps it would have been near his stomach or on his wrists so that he suffers, but she does not pick up on this. When Anne says “arise, dissembler; though I wish thy death, I will not be thy executioner”, the hypocritical Richard has won again.
These humiliating tactics like downgrading, making people feel inferior and sometimes torture were also used by Queen Mary Tudor because she carried this out on Protestants so that they would become Catholic again and as Richard this sometimes worked.
Richard also makes us feel sympathetic towards him. Because of his portrayed bestial form he uses this to make us feel pity for him and this is why we favour his side.
When Richard reveals his genuine feelings of self-disgust to the audience with the lines “My dukedom to be a beggarly denier” and “Myself to be a marv’lous proper man”, not only does he compare his dukedom with a worthless coin but also his form with another mans. The language is a strong indicator of sympathy because the word ‘beggarly’ is like the poorest of the poor.
We also feel sympathetic towards him because throughout the play, Richard shares his most inner secrets and feelings with no other character and only us. We know this because he says, “I am determined to prove a villain” and shows us that he will do what he needs to do even through crime.
He has declared his intentions with us and the characters do not know this.
Shakespeare also creates this sympathy near the end of the play. Before the battle, ghosts torment Richard in his dreams and “die and despair” is said by each victim that has died because of him. When he wakes with Ratcliffe holding him like a mother- child act he repeats “oh Ratcliffe, I fear, I fear”, showing that he has doubts about everything.
Tony Blair and other richer world leaders can compare to Richard because they constantly say ‘what if they attacked now’ or ‘what if they repeated September 11th’ so we get to the stage that we feel sorry for them. This is because they play with our minds and propagate that they are at a higher risk than we are, so we worry about their problems and not our own.
We also feel that Richard is a good liar, being both cunning and intelligent to keep himself safe.
Again as Richard would do, he uses lies to manipulate Clarence.
Richard constantly repeats to Clarence that it is most definitely the queen’s fault. He comes up with several lines saying that she is controlling the king including “that temps him to this harsh extremity”, which could be said emphasising the ‘extremity’ to show it is the boundaries of tolerance.
In this line, “ ’tis not the king…my Lady Grey, his wife” he makes Clarence see it is not his brother but Elizabeth who has imprisoned him. The language is more to the point because to Clarence, Richard is stating a fact and he does trust him. However, Richard always uses the same idea to feed Clarence and this might have lead to why Clarence has the dream.
When the Prince travels to the capital he says, “I fear no uncles dead”, which could be said in a bold and brave way. But Richard relies back with “nor none that live, I hope” trying to make Edward see that he means no harm. Richard tells these lies to the Prince so he is not seen as a threat.
Again, President Bush can be compared to Richard III because like Richard, Bush kept the truth that honestly he did not win the elections. The state of Florida was a fixed election as votes were wrongly counted and he was already President likewise, Richard became King by lying and hiding the truth.
Richard can play arrogant to achieve what he wants. When he is offered the crown, he had planned to refuse it then Buckingham would persuade him to take it. When Richard says, “your love deserves my thanks” he is trying to refuse the crown and tells them that it is a nice gesture.
Further more when he says “hide me from my greatness” and “faithful love to me”, the language used makes him sound as if he is boasting about his power. He also says “in my greatness” and it now sounds as if he is getting carried away and perhaps he knows this and is why he comes up with “I am unfit” so that the people offering the crown feel sympathetic and want him to take the crown.
This can relate to Henry VIII because he was arrogant against his religion. He was a good helper in the R.C church and then started a new church, just as Richard helped to get his brother the crown and then tried to seize it.
Even though Richard is planning to kill his brothers and others he seems very calm about everything.
He makes Clarence think he will set him free by saying “I will deliver you” but Richard means he will kill him. The language is said like this so at first it is taken at face value then when read has different meanings.
Even when Richard says “brother, farewell” Clarence thinks goodbye for a short time but what really is meant is goodbye forever. He also manages calmly to disapprove of King Edward by saying to Clarence “this deep disgracing brotherhood” blaming it entirely on Edward so that Clarence still trusts Richard. The word ‘disgracing’ stands out the most because it is harsh and has a big impact on brothers that were once really close. When it is followed by “touches more than you can imagine” he may actually mean it because everyone loves there family but Richard loves power more and will put his family second. The words “you can imagine” stand out more, because it is more than he can imagine, he does not know what his brother is plotting.
Now, Richard can be related to Tony Blair. At the moment he is calm about war, there has been little preparation and he is not nervous when talking or on television. Similar to how Richard was calm about the death of nearly all his family.
In conclusion, I think that Richard can be unreliable, selfish and greedy for power. His humiliating actions to people are cruel, however he is very cunning and intelligent. Shakespeare again presents a story with a wide range of characters all with motives and skilful plans.
