In her novel The Daughter of Time Josephine Tey looks at how history can be misconstrued through the more convenient reinterpretation of the person in power, and as such, can become part of our common understanding, not being true knowledge at all, but simply hearsay. In The Daughter of Time Josephine claims that 40 million school books can’t be wrong but then goes on to argue that the traditional view of Richard III as a power obsessed, blood thirsty monster is fiction made credible by Thomas More and given authenticity by William Shakespeare. Inspector Alan Grant looks into the murder of the princes in the tower out of boredom. Tey uses Grant to critique the way history is delivered to the public and the ability of historians to shape facts to present the argument they believe.
As the inspector begins to investigate the murders of the boys he collects history books that he believes will give him insight into Richard III and his horrible crime. The first history book he comes upon is a historical reader which bears “the same relation to history as Stories from the Bible bears to Holy Writ.” This book explains the tale of the princes in the tower using short paragraphs and full page illustrations which teaches an important moral, but adds no insight to the real story of Richard III. The second text he uses to investigate the crime is a proper school history book. The first realization he comes to while reading this book is that all school history books seem to separate history into easy to digest sections associated by the different reigns that never intersect or overlap. The second realization is that Richard III must have had a towering personality to have made himself “one of the best-known rulers” in two thousand years o...
... middle of paper ...
...e was also writing in Tudor England and seemed to have openly dislike Richard III. In other portions of his writing he describes Richard as an unattractive deformed man who was born with a full set of teeth. He writes that he had a “sour countenance , which seemed to savour of mischief, and utter evidently craft and deceit.”
References
Dominic Mancini,. “The Usurpation of Richard III” in Richard III A Source Book, Keith Dockray (Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing Limited, 1997)
Sir Thomas More, “The History of King Richard III” in Richard III A Source Book, Keith Dockray (Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing Limited, 1997)
Josephine Tey, The Daughter of Time (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995)
Polydore Vergil, “Three Books of Polydore Vergil’s English History” in Richard III A Source Book, Keith Dockray (Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing Limited, 1997)
These traits that Richard displayed were not befitting to a king and a man who was suppose to lead. Rather than look out for the interests of his people, Richard was more inclined to favor the interests of the rich and greedy. He implemented excessive taxing, and took profits by appropriating other peoples land for his own benefit and to fund a foreign war. Richard also went as far as alienating himself from his most important supporters, the nobleman. Ultimately, this led to...
The world is filled with many different types of societies and cultures. This is due to the fact that many people share dissimilar beliefs and ideas, as well as diverse ways of life. People lived under different circumstances and stipulations, therefore forming cultures and societies with ideas they formulated, themselves. These two factors, society and culture, are what motivate people to execute the things that they do. Many times, however, society and culture can cause downgrading effects to an assemblage if ever it is corrupt or prejudiced. Society and culture not only influences the emotions individuals have toward things like age differences, religion, power, and equality but also the actions they perform as a result.
Before reading Peter S. Donaldson’s article, "Cinema and the Kingdom of Death: Loncraine’s Richard III," I slept eight hours, ate a well-balanced breakfast, and ran a mile to warm up. I knew from reading "In Fair Verona," that Donaldson writes for fit athletes of an intense analytical and intellectual field. Focus, pacing, and especially composure are essential to navigating his intricate and challenging course of connections, allusions, Shakespeare, media, history, past, present, future and beyond. I was prepared, though, and began slowly, but confidently, on another one of Donaldson’s awesome paths. And this time, I just may have created some of my own.
Shakespeare, William. Richard III. The Norton Shakespeare. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1997), 515-600.
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...
In Richard III, Richard is introduced as a villain who has extraordinary skills with words and wins the throne with them; however, his malicious personality is a ‘product’ of the environment around him. He suffers with the fact that no one likes with his physical appearance- hunchback and deformity. Even his mother, Duchess doesn’t like him; “Thou cams't on earth to make the earth my hell. A grievous burthen was thy birth to me; Tetchy and wayward was thy infancy; Thy school days frightful, desp'rate, wild, and furious” (p. 262). This quote shows the reason why Richard becomes a villain; he isn’t even loved by a person who gave birth to him.
Malory, Sir Thomas. “The Crowning of Arthur.” Literature. Ed. Applebee, Arthur et. al. NY, New
...176). History provides a moral and spiritual point of reference for each new epoch. In All the King’s Men, Jack Burden the historian discovers that the past, honestly considered, does not deceive, nor do its vivid object lessons lead men astray. As Jack replays in his memory the actions of the characters (including himself) in the drama of his life, he grows to understand the roles played by those characters in his spiritual development, and to love them for their true nature. By contemplating the past in this manner, Jack builds out of truth and time a foundation that will raise him to stand strong in an uncertain future.
Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” tries to shed light on the conflict between women and a society that assign gender roles using a patriarchal approach. Specifically Margaret Bauer highlights, that most of Chopin’s works revolves around exploring the “dynamic interrelation between women and men, women and patriarchy, even women and women” (146). Similarly, in “The Story of an Hour” Chopin depicts a society that oppresses women mostly through the institution of marriage, as women are expected to remain submissive regardless of whether they derive any happiness. The question of divorce is not welcome, and it is tragic that freedom of women can only be realized through death. According to Bauer, the society depicted in Chopin’s story judged women harshly as it expected women to play their domestic roles without question, while on the other hand men were free to follow their dream and impose their will on their wives (149).
Shakespeare Richard III was a traitor, a murderer, a tyrant, and a hypocrite. The leading characteristics of his mind are scorn, sarcasm, and an overwhelming contempt. It appears that the contempt for his victims rather than active hatred or cruelty was the motive for murdering them. Upon meeting him he sounds the keynote to his whole character. " I, that am curtailed of this proportion, cheated of feature by dissembling nature, Deform'd, unfinish'd sent before my time Into this word scarce half made up"( 1.1.20-23)
Shakespeare, William. Richard III. The Norton Shakespeare. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1997), 515-600.
one of Richard’s consultants by the name of Sheriff Hutton. www.richardIII.com stated that Shakespeare also said that Richard
The women of the late sixties, although some are older than others, in Alice Walker’s fiction that exhibit the qualities of the developing, emergent model are greatly influenced through the era of the Civil Rights Movement. Motherhood is a major theme in modern women’s literature, which examines as a sacred, powerful, and spiritual component of the woman’s life. Alice Walker does not choose Southern black women to be her major protagonists only because she is one, but because she had discovered in the tradition and history they collectively experience an understanding of oppression that has been drawn from them a willingness to reject the principle and to hold what is difficult. Walker’s most developed character, Meridian, is a person who allows “an idea no matter where it came from to penetrate her life.” Meridian’s life is rooted under the curiosity of what is the morally right thing to do, at the right time and place. Meridian pursues a greatness amount of power, which is based upon her individualistic and personal view of herself as a mother. She looks for answers from her family, especially the heritage by her maternal ancestors, and seeks her identity through traditions passed on to her by Southern black women. In exploring the primacy of motherhood, African-American writer Alice Walker’s novel, Meridian, shifted the angle of seeing from the female perspective how the certain experiences affect their interpretations of motherhood.
The Flowers By Alice Walker Written in the 1970's The Flowers is set in the deep south of America and is about Myop, a small 10-year old African American girl who explores the grounds in which she lives. Walker explores how Myop reacts in different situations. She writes from a third person perspective of Myop's exploration. In the first two paragraph Walker clearly emphasises Myop's purity and young innocence.
Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour is a brilliant short story of irony and emotion. The story demonstrates conflicts that take us through the character’s emotions as she finds out about the death of her husband. Without the well written series of conflicts and events this story, the reader would not understand the depth of Mrs. Mallard’s inner conflict and the resolution at the end of the story. The conflict allows us to follow the emotions and unfold the irony of the situation in “The Story of an Hour.”