How Richard II is Presented in William Shakespeare's Play
In the play, Shakespeare presents Richard as a person who blames
others for people's situations that he has caused. He does this by
pretending to Clarence that it is the queen's fault he has been
imprisoned. To help ease the pain for Clarence and understand the
decision made, Richard tells him that "men are ruled by women" and
Clarence understands this given to what others say about her. The
language used has an impact because Richard is telling Clarence this
and may be said in a disgraced way.
Furthermore when talking, Richard uses the line "we are the queens
abject" to demonstrate the power one person has over them all. The
word abject stands out the most because it means both spiritless and
degrading - this is what view Richard wants people to have of
Elizabeth's outlook of everyone else. Straight afterwards he says "and
must obey" and means that orders that are not obeyed by anyone will be
punished.
Because it has been Richard who has manipulated events to put Clarence
in prison, he uses the queen's low popularity often in order to cover
up. Still trying to convince Clarence that it is her fault he tells
him " 'Tis not the king that sends you to the tower" and uses
persuasive language to make him see.
So that Richard can make sure Clarence doesn't suspect him, he says
"complaining to her deity got my Lord Chamberlain his liberty,"
meaning that if he complains he could be free. The language, to me
that Richard uses means another. The word 'liberty' could mean he
would get freedom but to where? Richard already knows the answer.
Richard backs himself up successfu...
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... When it is followed by "touches more than you
can imagine" he may actually mean it because everyone loves there
family but Richard loves power more and will put his family second.
The words "you can imagine" stand out more, because it is more than he
can imagine, he does not know what his brother is plotting.
Now, Richard can be related to Tony Blair. At the moment he is calm
about war, there has been little preparation and he is not nervous
when talking or on television. Similar to how Richard was calm about
the death of nearly all his family.
In conclusion, I think that Richard can be unreliable, selfish and
greedy for power. His humiliating actions to people are cruel, however
he is very cunning and intelligent. Shakespeare again presents a story
with a wide range of characters all with motives and skilful plans.
To explore connections between texts is to heighten understanding of humanity’s progressing values and the underlying relevant themes that continue to engage societies regardless of context. William Shakespeare’s King Richard III (1592) (RIII) and Al Pacino’s docudrama Looking for Richard (1996) (LFR) demonstrate how opinion is created through comparative study, both explore the struggle for power within differing contexts to determine the duplicity of humanity. Ultimately, despite the divergent eras of composition and textual form, these connections expose the relevant social commentaries of their composers, highlighting innately human values, which remain constant.
It is not terribly odd to see directors adapt Shakespearian plays to a different era. In fact, contemporary elements in films like Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet and the most recent Much Ado About Nothing by Joss Whedon have definitely bring valuable new readings to the text. Embracing this trend, Richard III (1995) by Richard Loncraine shifts its background to 1930s Britain. Starring Ian McKellen as Richard, the movie makes an undeniable connection to Nazi Germany; very details include costume design, set and prop, and cinematography choices all closely relate Richard to Hitler, an equivalent villain from modern history. The choice of blending Hitler into Richard puts viewers now into the shoes of audience from Shakespeare’s time to better understand Richard’s evil; although Richard III is quite ancient, Hitler is still a new scar.
Richard III and Deformity Some scholars insist that Richard was neither crippled nor humpbacked, and they are passionately dedicated to proving that Shakespeare's portrait of the inhuman monster is based on Tudor propaganda used to bolster Henry VII's weak claim to the throne The only "proof" we have of Richard III's deformity is that which is provided by Sir Thomas More in "The History of King Richard the Third". It is here that modern readers digest the adjectives which forever plague Richard "Little of stature, ill-featured of limbs, crooked-backed, his left shoulder much higher than his right". This description may seem horrible, but it is only compounded when it is placed next to the deformity of his character. Regardless of whether Richard was truly the demon he was portrayed to be, the role of Richard III as established by William Shakespeare is one of the more challenging roles for the Shakespearean actor.
Richard’s disdain for humane beliefs and customs (such as religion, marriage, and family) shows when he treats them as nothing more than empty forms – this further labels him as a demon of indiscipline and rebellion. He sees virtues as contrary to his power-thirsty nature and aim, which emphasizes his pathological shamelessness and lack of hremorse. With his charisma, he woos Lady Anne in order to disempower her, revealing his disregard towards the seriousnesss of murder and respect for women: “What though I killed her husband and her father?” (I.i.156). Richard shows his disrespect towards love and marriage as he becomes her husband “ not so much for love / [but] for another secret close intent” (I.i.159-160) to benefit himself. In Act IV, Richard “prays” with ...
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.
By using just the right combination of words, or by coming up with just the right image, Shakespeare wrote many passages and entire plays that were so powerful, moving, tragic, comedic, and romantic that many are still being memorized and performed today, almost four centuries later. But the greatness of Shakespeare’s ability lies not so much in the basic themes of his works but in the creativity he used to write these stories of love, power, greed, discrimination, hatred, and tragedy.
This contributes to a very villainous role. Richard begins his journey to the throne. He manipulates Lady Anne. into marrying him, even though she knows that he murdered her first. husband.
"therefore, since I can not prove a lover, To entertain these fair well spoken days, I am determined to be a villain".As a villain Richard must be heartless, he can not let his emotions interfere with his actions.
Composers throughout various zeitgeists are linked by different representations of universal human concerns, and their texts simultaneously embody certain values and agendas individual to themselves. An exploration of Shakespeare’s King Richard III (1592) and Al Pacino’s Looking for Richard (1996) allows for a greater understanding of the composer’s respective contexts, along with their intended agendas, through the lens of their own societal values and concerns. The manipulation of Richard III’s persona, whether by authorial adaptation of historical sources related to his character, or through the differing views of Richards motives, are universal concepts, that when studied in relation to the differing time periods, accentuates the context and our understanding of recurrent aspects of the human experience.
He breeds anger in Clarence and the populace, not of himself, but of Edward and the rightful heirs. "We are not safe, Clarence, we are not safe,"3 he exclaims as his brother is hauled away to the tower. He preys on the "hateful luxury And bestial appetite"4 of the citizenry, catapulting himself to the thrown over a heap of bodies: deaths that hang on his head. But, it is Richard's attitude that his end goal of the crown justifies the murderous means that so closely links ...
had Clarence killed so that he could have an uncontested line to the throne. Shakespeare also said that Richard killed young
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...
7 May 2010. Studygodorg.blogspot.com -. 14 March 2014. Downing, Elizabeth. A. The “Top 10 Greatest Shakespeare Villians.”
In Hamlet Shakespeare is able to use revenge in an extremely skillful way that gives us such deep insight into the characters. It is an excellent play that truly shows the complexity of humans. You can see in Hamlet how the characters are willing to sacrifice t...
Hamlet is one of Shakespeare’s most well-known tragedies. At first glance, it holds all of the common occurrences in a revenge tragedy which include plotting, ghosts, and madness, but its complexity as a story far transcends its functionality as a revenge tragedy. Revenge tragedies are often closely tied to the real or feigned madness in the play. Hamlet is such a complex revenge tragedy because there truly is a question about the sanity of the main character Prince Hamlet. Interestingly enough, this deepens the psychology of his character and affects the way that the revenge tragedy takes place. An evaluation of Hamlet’s actions and words over the course of the play can be determined to see that his ‘outsider’ outlook on society, coupled with his innate tendency to over-think his actions, leads to an unfocused mission of vengeance that brings about not only his own death, but also the unnecessary deaths of nearly all of the other main characters in the revenge tragedy.