Lady Anne’s monologue in act 1 scene 2 of William Shakespeare’s historical play Richard III is one of sorrow and hate. Anne is mourning the loss of her father in law King Henry VI who was murdered by the same man that killed her husband. Although she never says it during the monologue, we soon find out that the Lady knows that Richard is the one that has caused her all of this pain. The beginning of this section of Lady Anne’s monologue uses alliteration to emphasize her pain, by having many of the words start with the same continent it stresses the word allowing the reader to see that it is much more important than other sections of the text. Anne also reuses the word cursed when referring to how she believes the murderers life should be.
She argues that because terms like “divine inspiration” or “sacred spirit” were usable when praising Queen Elizabeth I that a sacred ruler, one endowed with a divine aura or “sacred spirit,” could exist outside the sanctified, yet corrupted autocracy Richard represents (56). In Elizabethan England, two centuries after Richard was overthrown, the divine rhetoric Shakespeare utilizes in Richard’s speeches, like the one above, clearly had not disappeared. This rhetoric’s ability to cycle in and out of popularity means that though Richard’s particular divinity suffers under the weight of his usurpation, and Bolingbroke, the destroyer of the Richard’s throne’s divinity, struggles to establish himself as a divine ruler, Elizabeth could use divine
Clarence's Speech in William Shakespeare's Richard III. The speech I am going to be examining is from one of Shakespeare's play, Richard III. It is the part of the play where George, Duke of Clarence is explaining a prophetic nightmare he had whilst being locked in the Tower of London. Richard III was a real king of England, but had been killed in battle.
In Act 3, Scene 4 of The Tragedy of King Richard the Second by Shakespeare, the Queen finds that she is unhappy due to an unexplained intuition. While in the Duke of York’s palace, the Queen’s waiting-women try to comfort her until the gardeners interrupt the failed attempts to reach a happiness. As the Queen secretly listens into the gardener’s conversation, she hears that they are speaking about binding the apricots and plucking the weeds. However, the gardening essentially is a metaphor for the rule and management of the kingdom under King Richard II. This scene is important because it displays how Shakespeare desires to reveal the perspective of the common man and the type of rule King Richard II has over the people of England. In the metaphors of the garden, blame is placed on Richard and his advisors for England’s state and the King’s overrule by Bolingbroke.
Richard is skilfully eloquent; however he chooses to convey this heroic trait satanically by using it to emphasize his rebellious nature against love, politics, and religion. Love is built upon reciprocated affection between two individuals, but Richard rebels by using it as a political tool, to the extent that he suggests incest at various points throughout the play. During the wooing scene, he wins the heart of Lady Anne by saying, “Your beauty was the cause of that effect: / Your beauty, that did haunt me in my sleep …” (1 .2, 126-127), accusing Anne’s beauty as inducement for murder. This quote implies that he plays upon the emotions of others, winning women over and bringing out their vulnerability by “his insinuating discourse” (Wilhelm, 20)...
Similar to Satan, Richard yearns to exploit what he is restrained from, such as romantic love and marriage. He is deprived of these privileges due to his deformed appearance, and for that reason, he seeks to demoralize and taint it. William C. Carroll the same observation in his essay: “The natural form and order of marriage and birth, then represent for Richard what he is denied, what he desires, and what he must violate (2).” Richard’s assault on love is a ferocious and revengeful one. This is evident before his wooing of Anne, when he declares, “What though I kill’d her husband and her father? / The readiest way to make the wench amends / Is to become her h...
As characters of high birth and important political positions, Titus and Hamlet are necessarily observed closely by those around them for their reaction to the tragic events that have taken in place in their lives; and it is primarily the unique language with which they express their grief and anger that disconcerts both their enemies and their friends, and keeps them under an exacting scrutiny for the duration of their eponymous plays. The other characters in Titus Andronicus and Hamlet interpret the language of these tragic heroes, the devices it employs, the lack of decorum it exhibits, as the symptom of madness. It is a language born out of suffering and crafted by intelligence and insight, and, above all, a desire to push language to its expressive limit, and as such, a language that characters like Marcus, Tamora, Polonius, Horatio, and Gertrude cannot appreciate, and are quick to label madness. And yet there is also a sense in which this term in not wholly inapplicable, for, as these plays demonstrate, there is a fine line between poetry and madness.
Shakespeare portrays Richard as a man with overpowering physical desires; although his role as a soldier and a man demands physicality, he has too much desire. Yearning for his brother, King Edward’s, death and plotting against his other brother, Clarence, Richard thinks that once both of them lay on their deathbeds, he can easily obtain the throne of England. Richard marries Lady Anne, a daughter of a noble, to have connections to settle a feud between the families. He wants to ask for her hand in marriage and tells himself, “The which will I, not all so much for love as for another secret close intent by marrying her which I must reach unto” (9). Richard foll...
As a twenty-first century academic, historical authors such as Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Dickenson, and Thoreau are praised for groundbreaking style and concepts; Historical events such as 9/11, the American Revolution, and the Holocaust are accepted as customary and influence our culture as well as writing. These influential roots of modern culture shape contemporary writing in the form of various allusions that bring meaningful connotations, contributing to a greater theme. Allusions incorporate notable anecdotes, figures, and historical events into a written piece. However, allusions vary from culture to culture and between time periods. An allusion to Tom the Tiger may be common knowledge in the town of Wheaton, but the allusion would be completely trivial to someone in Luxembourg without the background knowledge of the school mascot. Likewise, William Shakespeare’s allusions tailored towards a sixteenth century audience are often times overlooked by a modern audience despite the literary device’s development towards a greater theme. In order to fully grasp Shakespeare’s motive for his plays, twenty-first century pupils must delve into Shakespeare’s allusions. Shakespeare utilizes allusions throughout A Midsummer Night’s Dream in order to bridge the gap between human and divine by epitomizing mortal successes and humanizing the divine, in the hopes of motivating individuals to reach their full potential.
Shakespeare constructs King Richard III to perform his contextual agenda, or to perpetrate political propaganda in the light of a historical power struggle, mirroring the political concerns of his era through his adaptation and selection of source material. Shakespeare’s influences include Thomas More’s The History of King Richard the Third, both constructing a certain historical perspective of the play. The negative perspective of Richard III’s character is a perpetuation of established Tudor history, where Vergil constructed a history intermixed with Tudor history, and More’s connection to John Morton affected the villainous image of the tyrannous king. This negative image is accentuated through the antithesis of Richards treachery in juxtaposition of Richmond’s devotion, exemplified in the parallelism of ‘God and Saint George! Richmond and victory.’ The need to legitimize Elizabeth’s reign influenced Shakespeare’s portra...
We know that England is at peace after the war of the roses that took
The language Lady Anne uses is appropriate for the scene which is set during the funeral procession of King Henry VI. Lady Anne mourns the deaths of King Henry VI, her father-in-law, and his son, Prince Edward. Lady Anne says to the King that she was "wife to thy Edward, to thy slaughtered son" (1:2:10), although in history she was only betrothed to him. As a result, her relationship to his father, King Henry VI, is closer and her sadness is more valid. This supposed marriage also generates greater shock over her ensuing marriage to Richard III. The end-stopped lines are appropriate because they slow the speech and emphasize the dullness of one who feels pain and sorrow at the loss of a loved one. In addition, the ornate verse emphasizes the drama of her speech and the powerful emotion she exudes. The language upholds the sanctity of the King and recalls an elegy or psalm that w...
Although Richard’s physical appearance, does not allow him to impress others, his ability to persuade allows him to have an influence on individuals. A great example that demonstrates Richard’s ability to use his persuasive skills to manipulate people is expressed in Act I Scene II when Richard woos Anne. In this scene, Richard demonstrates perseverance and confidence, which are ideal characteristics of a protagonist, even though Anne calls him names and insults him. Although he is the guilty murderer he uses “language of forgiveness and Christian charity” (Pat Baldwin). Keep in mind that Richard kil...
Shakespeare's Richard III is a play pervasive in figurative language, one of the most notable being the symbolic image of the sun and the shadow it casts. In an examination of a short passage from the text, it will be argued that Richard is compared to a shadow in relation to the sun, which has traditionally been held as a symbol of the king. The passage is significant not only because it speaks volumes about the plots of Richard, but also because it is relevant in understanding the overall plot of the play, which in the first few acts is almost indistinguishable from the plot of the scheming Duke of Gloucester.
Richard becomes sympathetic in an evil sense when he divulges his plan to marry Warwick’s youngest daughter, Lady Anne. Richard tells the audience that, “the readiest way to make the wench amends is to become her husband and her father”(I.i.156-158). The irony behind Richards promise is that he’ll have her, “but [he] will not keep her long”(I.ii.236). Manipulating Lady Anne at a time when she's most vulnerable conveys to the audience that Richard is a villainous character. Richard employs compliments in an attempt to exploit Lady Anne's emotional state. Lady Anne's insults don't phase Richard even in the slightest, in fact, they feed his ego and enable him to continually exhibit his use of masterful wordplay. Richard is far too cunning to deliver compliments due to generosity. He justifies his past actions by professing his love for Lady Anne. Richard declares that her beauty was the motive for his previous actions. He proclaims to Anne that her beauty is so charismatic that it could enchant him to “undertake the death of all the world, so [he] might live one hour in [her] sweet bosom”(I.ii.128-129). Richards use of complex wordplay fulfills his lack of confidence that is caused from his deformities. He confesses that he only killed her husband so she could get a better one. Richard tells Lady Anne that her eyes have infected his eyes with love. Richard is quick to react in order to manipulate. However, Lady Anne's emotional state does not change until Richard shows sympathy for his wrongdoings and elects to bury the dead himself. Lady Anne is touched by Richards sympathy and respect towards the dead. She also is most joyous to hear Richard repent his sins, making it clear that she has fallen for is false sympathy. Richard professes to lady Anne that he will not only bury the dead, but also, “wet his grave with [his] repentant tears”(I.ii.220). To invent such a brilliant line in a
The madness of each individual is not realistic, but the idea that death, grievance, and revenge can drive someone to do things that seem to be mad or make them do things out of their nature. Overall, we see that the theme of madness has a significant impact on the conflicts and overall development of the play as well as the characters themselves and is successfully conveyed. Shakespeare developed a theme that tied the many important emotions and ideas together to make the play what it is. He used Ophelia’s grief and love, Hamlet’s wit and ruminative nature to convey a theme that could be related to more than the one character, and tie all of the conflicts and complications down to one cause.