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Critical essay on richard iii deception
Analyse the character of King Richard II
Critical essay on richard iii deception
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"The perfect man uses his mind as a mirror./ It grasps nothing. It regrets nothing./ It receives but does not keep."- Chuang Tzu. For the majority of this play, Richard the Third is the embodiment of this quote. He has no regrets and does not show any remorse for the terrible things he does. Yet he is revered and becomes king. How? Richard is capable of presenting different faces to the outside world. He shows people what they want to see. He is able to reflect people back onto themselves; he is a mirror. This is the charm that allows him to manipulate the people and the situations he is around.
At the end of scene 1.2, Richard wants to look at himself in the mirror after Lady Anne takes his ring. He is surprised by the fact that he has successfully wooed her. He has killed her husband and her husband's father. Richard has always seen himself as being deformed, and has blamed the fact that society looks down on him upon that physical feature. When Anne's and Richard's conversation began she referred to him as the devil, as a "Villain, thou know'st nor law of God nor man." (1.2.70). Yet, Anne starts to see something else when she looks at Richard. When she looks at him, I believe she sees a piece of herself. She states "With all my heart, and much it joys me, too,/ to see you are become so penitent-"(1.222-223). Richard is not remorseful, but because that quality is within Lady Anne and it is what she wants to see in Richard, he projects regret.
Clarence is a loyal man and tires to displace that quality onto Richard. When one of the murderers that are sent by Richard to kill Clarence says, "Your brother Goucester hates you, (1.4.235)" Clarence replies "Oh, no, he loves me, and he holds me dear (1.4.236)." The murderer goes on to disparage Richard and Clarence quickly defends him, "Oh, do not slander him, for he is kind (1.4.244)." Clarence is the one who is kind. And because Richard is like a mirror he cannot be seen through. Clarence only sees himself in Richard.
At the end of the play, the "false looking glass" that Richard has been called has been focused onto himself. It is the moment in the play in which he reveals his own self-doubt, conscience, and regret for his actions.
Instead, before we can return at last to the reigning Henry, the audience must see what has become of the former King Richard, and instead of cheering at his fall from power; the Groom’s actions must inspire sympathy for him. However, the purpose of this scene does not only creates sympathy for Richard, but by enacting the Groom, who refers to Richard not as a peer, but as a prince, the common people, who have already proven their ability to strip a monarch of his power, somewhat paradoxically repurpose and reinstate a symbolic, and emotional power to Richard. It seems the Groom’s words to Richard inspire him to not only acknowledge his wife’s analogy that, “the lion, dying, thrusteth forth his paw/And wounds the earth, if nothing else, with rage/To be overpowered,” and take action (5.1 29-31). Richard no longer acts as a peer to those who would take his life; he fights back like a lion and declares upon being struck down by Exton, “thy fierce hand/Hath with the King’s blood stained the King’s own land” (5.5,
...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.”
Richard's self "love" (5.5. 141), the kernel of his own identity, is threatened by the "fear" (5.5.136) his conscience instills in him. Throughout most of the play, the statement "Richard loves Richard" (5.5.137) functions as the character's motivation ‹ Gloucester consistently acts for his own "gain" (1.2.162). That self, however, has never been firmly worked out. The many "outward appearances" (Luxon) that Richard projects in the play are often contradictory, as he himself admits when he states that he "seem[s] a saint when most [he] play[s]...
Richard begins the play as a boy on the verge of manhood. A studious youth, just beginning to sow the seeds of rebellion, he at first feels no need to rebel against things close at hand. This soon changes with a visit to his father from Richard's girlfriend's father. Richard has been sending poetry to Muriel, his girlfriend, and her father sees the subject matter of this poetry as inappropriate. Unbeknownst to Richard, Muriel has been coerced into writing a letter to him breaking off the relationship. Richard feels so heartbroken he rebels against everything. This moment is the point in which Richard enters the "wilderness." The perfect opportunity to prov...
Richard displays qualities of a Fascist leader from the beginning of the play. Richard is jealous of his brother’s power and the happiness of his family and friends. He has grown malicious and plots to take the throne. He has no qualms at the thought of killing anyone who gets in his way declaring “I am determined to prove a villain” Embarrassment over his physical deformities also plays a role in fueling this malicious intent. In the opening dialogue Richard declares himself cruel and evil “I am subtle, false, and treache...
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...
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...
The undeniable pursuit for power is Richard’s flaw as a Vice character. This aspect is demonstrated in Shakespeare’s play King Richard III through the actions Richard portrays in an attempt to take the throne, allowing the audience to perceive this as an abhorrent transgression against the divine order. The deformity of Richards arm and back also symbolically imply a sense of villainy through Shakespeare’s context. In one of Richard’s soliloquies, he states how ‘thus like the formal Vice Iniquity/ I moralize two meanings in one word’. Through the use of immoral jargons, Shakespeare emphasises Richard’s tenacity to attain a sense of power. However, Richard’s personal struggle with power causes him to become paranoid and demanding, as demonstrated through the use of modality ‘I wish’ in ‘I wish the bastards dead’. This act thus becomes heavily discordant to the accepted great chain of being and conveys Richard’s consumption by power.
The origin of Richard's evil is rooted in his premature birth. Due to his disabilities Richard has no self confidence and thus is “determined to prove a villain” because he “cannot prove a lover.” Shakespeare uses dramatic irony to exemplify Richards masterful use of language richard. Richards manipulative actions are thematic and frequent throughout the entire play. Shakespeare uses Richard as a universal lesson for society. And he believes humans that are corrupt and sin will be brought down by their own conscious. Richards manipulative actions eventually backfire when his conscious awakes him from his dreams thus proving Shakespeare's over arching philosophy.
The first scene of the play begins with a soliloquy, which emphasizes Richard's physical isolation as he appears alone as he speaks to is audience. The idea of physical isolation is heightened by his references to his deformity such as "rudely stamped ....Cheated of feature by dissembling Nature, deformed unfinished". "( 1.1.21-22). This deformity would be an outward indication to his audience of the disharmony from Nature and viciousness of his spirit. As he hated "the idle pleasure of these days" and speaks of his plots to sent one brother against another, Richard seems socially apart from the figures around him, and perhaps regarded as an outsider or ostracized because of his deformity. His separation his family is emphasized when he says "Dive, thoughts down to my soul"(1.1.41) when he sees his brother approaching. He is unable to share his thought with his own family as he is plotting against them. Thus, we are given hints of his physical, social and spiritual isolation which is developed throughout the play. But despite these hints, he still refers to himself as part of the House of York, shown in the repeated use of "Our"
...ive for Richard’s manipulation in different ways, reflecting the values of their respective zeitgeists, and Looking for Richard emphasizes that there is no fear of divine retribution in the modern context, but the impact of their immoral behavior on their individual identity.
I feel that Richard gains our sympathy when he resigns the crown, refuses to read the paper that highlights his crimes, and smashes the mirror, which represents his vanity. In terms of kingship, I interpret the play as an exploration between the contrast with aristocratic pride in the law and the king's omnipotent powers. It also shows the chain reaction on kingship as past events in history determine present
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
Gaunt curses Richard upon his deathbed. This curse is a bad omen and a prophesy of Richard's downfall. Richard's foolishness is shown w...
In King Richard III Shakespeare presents the timeless notion of the inevitable connection between the moral rectitude of the political power and the condition of the State by illustrating the tragic consequences of Richard’s fraudulent pursuits for power. Set in the Elizabethan era following the Yorks’ victory in the War of the Roses, the 16thC doctrine of royal absolutism is epitomized by Buckingham’s hyperbolic extolment “the supreme seat, the throne majestical”. Through this, Shakespeare illustrates a hierarchical society that strictly upholds canons of the Divine Right of Kings and the Great Chain of Being. However, through the diabolic imaging of Richard as “a tyrannous villain”, the play reflects the politically correct endorsements of the Tudor ...