RICHARD III

Shakespeare’s Historical Drama Richard III

Richard III is a historical play by William Shakespeare. Richard III, the protagonist of the story, becomes a king through murders and violence. In Richard Shakespeare combined the protagonist and the main villain of the play. He kills his enemies, his friends and even his wife. Richard is depicted as a cruel man, who does not care about anybody but himself. He is finally defeated by the Duke of Richmond in the end of the play. The author uses Richard in order to get a better understanding of the psychology of evil. He investigates the inner world of the main character in order to get an idea how people create evil deeds. The author wants to see forces that drive them. Richard becomes an embodiment of evil. Despite this fact Richard is not shallow and simple character. Shakespeare depicts him as complicated person with inner conflicts and ability to self-reflection and analysis. Those, who watch the play experience ambiguous feelings when they get to know the protagonist better and better. From the very first scene Richard discovers his personality and declares his goal to achieve what he wants by any means. He is not going to consider thoughts and feelings of others people. As he states in the first act,
Why, I in this weak piping time of peace
Have no delight to pass away the time,
Unless to spy my shadow in the sun
And descant on mine own deformity.
And therefore since I cannot prove a lover
To entertain these fair well-spoken days,
I am determined to prove a villain
And hate the idle pleasures of these days. [I.1, 1-31]
Later in the play Richard follows these ideas and does everything to fulfill his purpose. Despite all negative characteristics of the protagonist, Shakespeare depicts him as a strong and charismatic personality. That is the reason of the ambiguous feelings, which has an audience while watching the play. People can either love or hate Richard, but they can not stay indifferent when they see him. Shakespeare puts much effort trying to explain the enigmatic power of this strong personality. People around Richard obey him, even being aware of his evil nature. They let him to manipulate them and Richard perfectly uses this opportunity.
Lady Anne becomes fascinated by his personality, despite she realized that he has killed her husband. And even Richard’s confession «Your beauty was the cause of that effect" does not stop Anne (I.ii.121). Richard agrees that «I did kill King Henry--/[b]ut 'twas thy beauty that provoked me" and wins Anne’s love (I.ii.179-80). She finally becomes his wife, marrying the man who has killed her husband. Same self-assurance helps him to win love and obedience of other people. His citizens are fascinated by Richard’s speeches. Richards does a perfect job by making good appearance and hiding his true intentions. He wins love of people, by creating an image of simple and modest man. His long and persuasive speeches have a magnetic power on everybody who listens to him. Despite he confesses all his evil thoughts and intentions, the audience, same like other characters of the play, can not escape his mesmerizing power of persuasion. He acts like a loving and caring brother for Clarence. This way he gains trust and only the audience knows, that Richard himself is guilty in the events, he wants to warn Clearance about. He uses wordplay to cover his lies and to justify his actions. He treats all things and people around him like a part of the play and acts accordingly.
While there is no public around Richard, uncovers his true nature to the audience. People can see his evil nature and true intentions. Richard finds justifications for all his evil actions and after some time other people start believing him. Shakespeare uses this character in order to demonstrate how evil can gain power and get support from ordinary people. By the end of the play, when Richard’s power of speech declines, the audience can see his true nature and all lies and manipulation. After Richard gets the throne his perfect playing skills betray him. He is worried about the threat crated by Richmond. He starts loosing confidence and this ruins his charisma and decreases his persuasion skills.

II.
Richard plays like an actor throughout the play. He uses words and images, which appeal to the public and this way he wins the hearts and controls the minds of other people. Using this strategy he gets what he wants from other people.
In the fifth act we can compare different strategies, used by Richmond and Richard before their final battle. Richmond does his best to raise the spirit of his people. He is friendly to his colleagues and soldiers and treats them as equal partners. Together they have one common goal. Together with his men Richmond recalls all bad deeds of Richard and grief and despair he has brought to their land. Richmond tells his people that all allies will most probably betray Richard because they stay with him because of fear. People become inspired by Richmond’s sincere and honest speech. Richmond proves to his people that it is necessary to stop Richard and remove him from power since he breaks all moral norms and regulations. Richmond’s speech brings a sense of inner strength and justice. He underlines that they are fighting to defend their native land and wants to get rid of Richard’s tyranny.
Richard also tried to encourage his men. King Richard speaks about the future great battle. He declares himself as an eligible king and promises to punish those, who dared to rebel against him. Richard is very sharp with his people. It is evident that he looks down at them and believes that they can not be treated like equals. He does not let anybody to become close with him. He prefers loneliness and isolation and finally he became scared of them during the last night before the battle. He feels fear and loneliness but there is nobody to help him.
Despite he wants to evoke optimism in his people, they do not look too enthusiastic about the future battle. Suddenly people stop believing Richard.
Despite both, Richard and Richmond want to encourage their troops before the battle and use practically same devices, the effect of their speeches is different. Shakespeare creates a very vivid contrast between these two camps and two characters. The preparations for the battle are very alike in both camps, but the spirit in the camps and the mood of the leaders are different. Richmond’s people are inspired and ready to fight their enemy, while Richard’s troops feel frustrated and lost. The main thing, which differences these two speeches, is faith. Richmond is absolutely sure in his righteousness and feels support and acceptance of other people. He is sure that he does the right thing and he is ready to put much effort in order to win. At the same time self-confidence betrays Richard. For the first time during the play he starts doubting. In the last act of the play Richard looses confidence in himself and very soon it become evident to people who surround him. As soon as he loose confidence in himself other people also stop believing him. Richard tries to assure his people that Richmond has three times less people than he does but this does not help him much and his people are still frustrated. In the depth of his soul Richard knows that he used indecent ways in order to gain power and he murdered a lot of innocent people in order to get the throne and fulfil his other egoistic wishes. Suddenly the burden of this hard realization deprives him of self-confidence and he looses his faith in his right to do whatever he wants. This becomes the beginning of Richard’s downfall.

References

Shakespeare, William. (2004) Richard III, Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington Square Press.