Richard III Analysis

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While Shakespeare was writing Richard III, he was limited in options of sources that depicted the history of Richard III. In regards to the nature in which the playwright portrayed the king, “Shakespeare borrowed these negative details from other sources such as Thomas More and enemies of Richard who dishonestly wrote the majority of his history” (“Historiography”). According to the University of Michigan, “Sir Thomas More had been born in 1478, seven years before the Battle at Bosworth, too young to remember anything first hand. More spent a portion of his youth in the household of Dr. John Morton. We may assume that More’s writings were based on what he heard and learned while there. Morton was one of Richard III’s bitterest enemies and we must view his recollections as tainted and biased” (“Historiography”). With this information, it is evident that More’s writing was heavily influenced by Tudor propaganda. His historical accounts of Richard III in his 1513 publication of The History of King Richard the Third portrays him in a light very similar to Shakespeare’s. More, describi...

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