Construction of Characters

In order to compose an exploratory “semi-reproduction” of a text from a different era, one needs not only to analyse the depth in language, construction of characters and other logistics behind the text itself, but also aspects of the society which gave birth to it. It is an impossibility to effectively or accurately transform a text to meet the requirements placed on it by contemporary values while concurrently retaining representations of the “parent” society, without fully understanding the driving mechanics behind the social order (or disorder) from which the context is derived.

Although at first glance the Makellan/Locraine’s Richard III seems to be a feeble attempt at streamlining Shakespeare for the popular audience we can see after a more analytical viewing that it actually meets the qualities ascribed above quite successfully. The selection of settings, placement of dialogue (ie dialogue being given to different characters), the inclusion of certain characters and the exclusion of others all become reflections of the director’s extensive ability to respond to the necessary prerequisite of understanding the alluded text and circumstances of it’s creation.

To represent the values of the Elizabethan society, while avoiding the loss of credibility by thrusting those aspects into a modern setting, we have to select an era in which such values were present by default. At the same time this new time frame must be familiar to us in the historical sense so that we easily make our connections to the events which occurred during that time. The director chose Britain in the 1930s. The similarities are almost eerie. The underlying social unrest of the depression times between the two Great Wars must have been identical to what the people of post-War of the Roses era were going through. The heated tensions between the Great Powers in Europe and the rise of Hitler and NAZI Germany and also the fresh memories of suffering caused by the Great Depression all added to the general atmosphere of suspicion and fear. The resurgence of nationalistic attitudes in 30s was quite similar to national unity achieved under the rule of Elizabeth.

Added to all this was the issue of equality in gender. It would have been quite ridiculous to have all the female characters as humble subordinates of men if the film were to be set in the 90s. It was essential to make women dependen...

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...ling him.

The battle scene does however reflect on Shakespeare’s use of entertainment in combination with elegance and sophistication so that it would appeal to a diverse audience, made up of different classes with different traditions. It also highlights the aim of the film producers to bring Shakespeare into the “popular” culture.

But of all these the most obvious link back to Shakespeare is the use of Elizabethan language. It utilised as a device to keep us reminded that the values of Elizabethans must be taken into account when we make judgment on the actions of characters. We must identify the differences in our present social values to ones of our predecessors to accurately perceive the significance of the changes made to the original script.

The film’s context is stretched across a time frame of four centuries, incorporating the values of western societies through that time. The consistencies become apparent as we make connections to the issues discussed in Shakespeare’s Richard III, written four hundred years ago. I think we can confidently say that the film was quite successful in achieving it’s purpose of trying to relate the themes of Shakespeare into modern society.