Universitatea Dunarea de Jos Galati

Conversie profesionala Limba si literatura engleza

Studenta Chirac Buza Bianca Georgiana
An I 2020

Richard III - case study

Richard III seems at first glance to be a fairly simple work in its general outlines: a
drama with a striking central character whose rise and fall provide a straightforward
entertainment, set within a context that lends moral weight to the tale. This description is
adequate up to a point, and it suggests the playwright's interest in individual human
capacities for good and evil, a characteristic concern of the Renaissance. But because
our experience of the play is dominated by its protagonist, we may lose an appreciation
of its primary theme, which is a social one: the redemption of English public life through
the coming of the Tudor Dynasty.

The character of Richard III, in William Shakespeare's historical drama 'Richard III,' is
one of Shakespeare's most important and original characters. 'Richard III' is considered
by some critics to be a case study in how absolute power can corrupt absolutely, while
other critics consider the play to be a portrait of absolute evil or psychopathy.

At the start of Shakespeare's historical drama Richard III, England is at peace following
a long and bloody war between the royal families of York and Lancaster. King Edward
IV has led the Yorks to victory over the Lancasters and is celebrated throughout
England as a hero, which earns him the absolute scorn of his younger and physically
deformed brother Richard III. Feeling powerless and envious of his older brother,
Richard decides to overthrow his brother's leadership and become the leader of
England.

In the first two lines is found a typical Shakespearean play upon a word — the word sun
in this instance. Edward IV was the son of the Duke of York and bore a sun on his
armorial crest. Metaphorically, he was the bright sun of the Yorkist party, now in the
ascendant. And, of course, the sun is a well-known symbol of royalty. Notice how
skillfully Shakespeare sustains the sun metaphor:

In the first two lines is found a typical Shakespearean play upon a word, which is “sun”.
Edward IV was the Duke of York’s son and bore a sun on his armonrial crest. As a
metaphor, he was the bright sun of the Yorkist party, the sun being a well-known symbol
of royalty:

Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace

Have no delight to pass away the time,

Unless to see my shadow in the sun,

And descant on mine own deformity.

The opening soliloquy of the play reflects Richard’s thoughts about his warped body:

I that am curtailed of this fair proportion,

Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,

Deformed, unfinished, sent before my time

Into this breathing world scarce half made up-

……………………………………………..

And therefore since I cannot prove a lover

To entertain these fair well-spoken days,

I am determined to prove a villain

And hate the idle pleasures of these days.

(18-31)

Richard’s use of the words “deformed” and “unfinished”, along with his admission that
he is “scarce half made up”, emphasize the fact that Richard perceives himself as
lacking in some significant way, that he is a flawed man, as Lady Anne points out,
Richard is a “diffused infection of a man”

Throughout the play, the characters discuss Richard’s body in a number of ways: Anne
and Elizabeth describe him as “lump of foul deformity”, “diffuse infection of a man”,
“hedgehog”, “bottled spider” and “poisonous bunch-backed toad”, “Slander of thy
mother’s heavy womb”.

Then since the heaven have shap’d my body

Let hell make crook’d my mind to answer it.”

(3 Henry VI, v, 6, pp. 78-79)

All these insulting terms are very offensive and hateful for Richard. In a profoundly
religious sense at that time, physical deformity was certainly considered as the work of
God. Even different people might react with resentment at their disability. However, the
more likely consequence would be a “hair shirt” approach towards physical
malformation and it is considered as a burden to be endured with self-effacement.
Richard being a religious man appears to have taken the second way. However the
people around Richard might think his physical deformity as an emblem of evil.

Richard has never experienced love and has never been loved by anyone since his
childhood. He was not loved by his mother and wife or any of the family members where
else he should have learnt it? Richard was a premature baby and this may be the
reason behind his deformity. Society cannot accept such people, so he was also not
accepted by the society. Even his own mother despises him when she says:

“And I, for comfort, have but one false glass,

That grieves me when I see my shame in him.”

Richard is treated very inhumanely in his family and social circle. Such a cruel behavior
towards a physically deformed person crops up a question in one’s mind, whether
Richard is evil by nature? Or it is the attitude of the people towards his deformity that
made him wicked? Critics also raise different questions while discussing Richard’s
deformities, and wondering whether they are the tangible manifestations of an inner evil
or they themselves are the root of his wickedness. Shakespeare’s treatment of Richard,
Duke of Gloucester’s physical deformity is often used by literary scholars as a point of
departure for the asking of some fundamental metaphysical questions: Is his deformity a
sign of his innate inward corruption, or is it the cause of his iniquity? It is evidently clear
that deformity must in some way be directly linked to his absent morality.

Richard is, certainly, the main character of the play that bears his name. The story is
told almost entirely from his perspective and he is the dominant figure throughout the
play. It is possible to consider Richard to be a somewhat heroic figure in the play, or at
least an anti-hero. Richard is, at least at the beginning of the play, a character for whom
readers can feel some sense of empathy. Richard uses his incredible rhetorical abilities
to win the trust of not only many of the characters within the play, but also his audience.
While Richard does possess some admirable characteristics, his actions throughout the
play, especially during its second half, are undeniably evil. While he might possess
some of the characteristics of an anti-hero, Richard certainly develops into a villain by
the end of the play. He is, for all of his intellectual abilities, charm and psychological
damage, a villainous character, perhaps the greatest and most powerful villain
Shakespeare ever presented.

Richard can also be considered not just as the protagonist of the play but also as the
antagonist, because it is Richard himself who ultimately brings about his own downfall
and ruin. Once Richard has command of England, his truly evil nature becomes readily
apparent and he no longer even attempts to behave in a humane manner. He does not
disguise his murderous intentions, nor does he attempt any longer to explain them or
justify them to his audience. His truly evil intentions are made readily clear and
everyone in the play - and in the audience - turns against him, which leads to his
ultimate downfall and death. It is his own decision to be evil, so, from his body;
deformity spreads over all his character. He himself says in the opening scene:

“Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace,

Have no delight to pass away the time,

Unless to spy my shadow in the sun

And descant of mine own deformity;

And, therefore, since I cannot prove a lover,

To entertain these fair well-spoken days,

I am determined to prove a villain,

And hate the idle pleasure of these days.”

(1.1.1)
Richard is manipulative and conniving, not to mention violent and cruel. He uses his
physical deformity in order to gain sympathy from his audience and from other
characters in the play. These critics consider Richard to be a portrait of a man who is
cold-hearted and utterly evil.