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5027two Essays
5027two Essays
The prolific theatricality of Shakespearean plays has the ability to enthral or repel an
audience. The lyricism, language and rhetoric devices in Shakespeare’s King Richard III
allowed the ideas of the canonical text to resonate clearly with the Elizabethan audience.
The opening soliloquy simultaneously causes the audience to admire the vice’s candour yet
ambivalently despise him for his aggressive machinations. A skilful blend of rhetoric devices
provides a platform for the play to unfold. Dramatic irony is heavily used throughout the
play as a theatrical device to engage and humour the audience. Act 1 Scene 1 line 154 “I’ll
marry Warwick’s youngest daughter” declares the intentions of Richard in a soliloquy before
the other characters are aware. This not only captivates the audience through dramatic
irony, but also furthers the understanding that Richard is a treacherous character that defies
the divine appointment to the throne. Imagery is also an integral characteristic of the
theatricality of Shakespeare’s play. By Queen Margaret calling Richard “the devil,” a vitriolic
image is presented to the Elizabethan audience because of the heavy medieval belief in
fiends. Furthermore, animal imagery underpins character’s connotations. Richard is referred
to as a “toad,” “boar,” “foul swine” and “hedgehog.” The consistency and power of the
animal imagery therefore creates the idea amongst the audience that Richard is more
animal than human, thus he is dehumanised and projected as an unworthy leader of the
monarch. The theatricality of Shakespeare’s play also powerfully expresses conflict, the
essence of all drama, through dichotomy. The opening soliloquy extensively uses opposing
notions, like “smoother/wrinkled” and “dreadful marches/delightful measures.” Particularly,
the wooing scenes involve a use of stichomythia to produce balanced and antithetical
pairings of sentences. Richard says “your reasons are too shallow and too quick.” In
repartee, Elizabeth corrects, “oh, no, my reasons are too deep and dead.” Through close
examination of language, the theatricality of Shakespeare’s King Richard III is a weighty
component of the play’s appeal.
Modern film broadens the entertainment spectrum from Medieval presentations at
the Globe Theatre. Al Pacino enriches our modern understanding and appreciation of King
Richard III through the alleviation of anxiety about the inaccessibility of the play. Pacino
engages the audience through vox populis expressing the opinions of differing public
citizens towards Shakespeare. The audience may be able to identify with the raw
truthfulness of the public, thus contemporary viewers are immediately involved in the film.
The stream of consciousness doco-style allows Pacino to present the organic and difficult
process of trying to explain Shakespeare. Pacino confirms this challenge when stating “I’m
confused just saying it to you.” Iambic pentameter is a word often associated with
Shakespeare’s plays and often not holistically understood. Pacino is given the scope of
editing in his film, and he utilises cross-cutting between various people, including Vamesse
Redgrave, who give their insight into understanding iambic pentameter in colloquial terms.
Our appreciation of iambic pentameter is reliant on our understanding of the concept,
which is clearly explained in the ant-eater analogy. Pacino and Kimball interject at points to
explain complicated notions like the line of succession, which they assume contemporary
audiences may not understand. This explanation is supported by jump cuts to frames
providing visual cues for the audience. Hence, Pacino restates the family lineage in
colloquial language and commoratio so that as a contemporary audience, we can
understand Shakespeare’s King Richard III to a greater extent. Pacino truly relies on and fully
utilises the art of cinema to interest and assist his audience in the understanding and
appreciation of Shakespeare’s play, particularly the theatricality.
This is the second essay, produced in the trial. I used the vast majority of this essay again in
the HSC exam, obviously changing to fit the question.