There are five female characters in the play Richard III. Of these five there are four central female characters; the Duchess of York, Richard's mother; Anne who later becomes Richard's wife; Queen Margaret who was the former queen and Richard's arch enemy and Queen Elizabeth, the current queen. The final female character who plays a minor role in the play is Queen Elizabeth's daughter, Elizabeth, but she is merely a pawn in Richard's plan and we never meet her. Each woman has a significant role in Richard III and is vital to the script. Anne is the first female character that we meet in the text (act 1 scene 2), which is where she is wooed by the ultimate villain in the play, Richard. Anne has just lost her husband and is wallowing in self-pity when Richard appears. Anne is a vulnerable and weak character throughout the play although she appears bold and vengeful at the beginning of this scene, trying to disarm Richard with words, 'Dost grant me, hedgehog? Then God grant me too/Thou mayst be damned for that wicked deed!' Anne is confused and emotionally unstable which makes her more susceptible to Richard's charms. Anne's dramatic role in the play is to reveal Richard's power to charm and manipulate which he does exceptionally. Although the audience know of his true intentions and that he does not plan to 'keep her long' we are glad that he has succeeded because he is the typical villain that we love to hate, although Anne must be corrupt to succumb to him and his charms. He admits that he killed her husband and her father-in-law 'Nay, do not pause; for I did kill King Henry/But 'twas thy beauty that provoked me/'twas I ... ... middle of paper ... ...use they have all been victims of King Richard and finally realise that they have to support each other because they have no-one else. Queen Elizabeth asks Queen Margaret for instructions in cursing 'O thou well skilled in curses, stay a while/And teach me how to curse mine enemies!' which I believe is her way of saying sorry and treating her as an equal. The women in this play are vital to the script and although they have no power whatsoever in this play, without them neither would Richard. Part of each of the female characters role was to show that in their era it was the men that held the power and the women were entirely powerless which Shakespeare presented superbly. Works Cited Shakespeare, William. Richard III. The Norton Shakespeare. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1997), 515-600.
Anne is quite like a modern woman in the way that if a man tells her
Clark, W.G., and W. Aldis Wirhgt, eds. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. Vol 2. USA: Nd. 2 vols.
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Shakespeare, William. Richard III. The Norton Shakespeare. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1997), 515-600.
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Shakespeare, William. The Norton Shakespeare. Edited Stephen Greenblatt et al. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1997.
In Shakespeare's The Tragedy of King Richard the Third, the historical context of the play is dominated by male figures. As a result, women are relegated to an inferior role. However, they achieve verbal power through their own discourse of religion and superstition. In the opening speech of Act 1, Scene 2, Lines 1-30 Lady Anne orients the reader to the crucial political context of the play and the metaphysical issues contained within it (Greenblatt, 509). Lady Anne curses her foes, using strong language to indicate her authority. She speaks in blank verse, by which she utilizes imagery to emphasize her emotions and reinforce her pleas. Her speech clearly illustrates the distinction between the submissive female role within the male sphere of war and the powerful female voice within the realm of superstition.
Compare the behavior and reactions of Richard, Anne and Elizabeth in Act One Scene Two and Act Four Scene Four.
Cohen, Walter, J.E. Howard, K. Eisaman Maus. The Norton Shakespeare. Vol. 2 Stephen Greenblatt, General Editor. New York, London. 2008. ISBN 978-0-393-92991-1
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Throughout the historical literary periods, many writers underrepresented and undervalued the role of women in society, even more, they did not choose to yield the benefits of the numerous uses of the female character concerning the roles which women could accomplish as plot devices and literary tools. William Shakespeare was one playwright who found several uses for female characters in his works. Despite the fact that in Shakespeare's history play, Richard II, he did not use women in order to implement the facts regarding the historical events. Instead, he focused the use of women roles by making it clear that female characters significantly enriched the literary and theatrical facets of his work. Furthermore in Shakespeare’s history play, King Richard II, many critics have debated the role that women play, especially the queen. One of the arguments is that Shakespeare uses the queen’s role as every women’s role to show domestic life and emotion. Jo McMurtry explains the role of all women in his book, Understanding Shakespeare’s England A Companion for the American Reader, he states, “Women were seen, legally and socially, as wives. Marriage was a permanent state” (5). McMurtry argues that every woman’s role in the Elizabethan society is understood to be a legal permanent state that is socially correct as wives and mothers. Other critics believe that the role of the queen was to soften King Richard II’s personality for the nobles and commoners opinion of him. Shakespeare gives the queen only a few speaking scenes with limited lines in Acts two, four, and five through-out the play. Also, she is mentioned only a few times by several other of the characters of the play and is in multiple scenes wit...
Shakespeare, William. The Three-Text Hamlet. Eds. Paul Bertram and Bernice Kliman. New York: AMS Press, 1991.