Richard The III Literary Devices

William Shakespeare’s Richard the III revolves around the Duke of Gloucester, Richard, and his treacherous plan of lying, cheating and murdering in order to become king. In this excerpt of Act 1 scene 2, Richard has just completed one of his first major steps to becoming a villain; he has succeeded in wooing lady Anne, a potentially important political figure in the future, to his side. Alone on stage, he remarks on how surprisingly easy a task it was. He is now confident in becoming a villain to achieve his goals. The scene is meant to reveal Richard’s character through a variety of literary devices, as he starts to develop a sense of arrogance and sense of superiority. He now is starting to believe that he has a full understanding of how

His soliloquy opens up with two rhetorical questions as he congratulates himself. He mockingly asks himself and the audience if there was ever a “woman in this humour wooed” or “won”. His use of anaphora by repeating the words “was ever” is meant to show off his pride with his manipulation skills. He’s emphasizing the fact that for the first time possibly ever, someone has gotten a woman who previously despised them from the bottom of her heart to love them within minutes. He then makes it clear that he’s now looking down on Anne by saying that he “will have her, but he will not keep her for long.” Immediately through these first few lines, Richard’s character is revealed to be inconsiderate, and at the same time, it’s developing a sense of arrogance. His stating of “not keeping her for long” also refers to his eagerness to become king as soon as possible so he can dispose of her, showing a newfound sense of urgency with his plan resulting from the success. By implying that Anne is only a small part of his plan, he reveals his intent to use facades not just for Anne, but as many times as he needs until he is seated on the

He intends to “turn yon fellow” (the dead king) in his grave”, then “return lamenting” to his love. This restates that he is willing to continue with this facade for as long as it takes, as many times as it takes until he achieves his ultimate goal. It is evident he looks down at Anne’s father due to his improper burial, likely because he was a previous enemy, but also displaying how he shows little respect for the dead and for the promises to others. His unwillingness to keep his word relates to how he sees everyone else as inferior, hence he sees no reason to actually keep his promise. He makes no hesitation in this decision, for he realises himself that there will no longer be a place for him once he stops his tyranny. His last remark, a couplet, has two potential meanings. One can interpret it as apostrophe, when he directly talks to the sun, or a metaphor, the sun representing the king. In both cases, he uses the metonymy of his shadow as his evil sins and the metaphor of his mirror as him reflecting back on these sins. It’s as if he’s saying: “let there be peace, and let the sun (the sun or the king) shine until I'm king. I shall continue to use my heinous methods until I can be seated on the throne, thinking back and looking down at the crimes i