Richard III themes, critics and quotes
- Created by: BronwynHunn24
- Created on: 27-02-20 09:30
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- Richard III Key themes.
- Love
- Lack of Love is what made Richard what he is.
- Critic- Pearlman his isolation from his brothers is a key facet in his behaviour
- Duchess of York - "A grievous burthen was thy birth to me"
- Context - Richard in real life had a curvature of the spin and thus was different, while Shakespeare did accentuate these differences, he may have been treated differently by his mother.
- Richard - "if if cannot prove a lover i am deterrmind to prove a villain.
- Critic - Sioban Keenan “there are reasons for Richard’s villainy and he is not without redeeming qualities or a moral compass”
- Lack of Love is what made Richard what he is.
- Hate
- Richard is a hateful character because of the hate that he was shown.
- Critic -Sigmund freud “the exceptions” 1916 “we all demand reparation for early wounds to our narcissism, our self love”
- Duchess of York - "Bloody thou art, bloody thy will end" - shows that even his mother wishes him a gruesome departure from this world.
- Critic -Sigmund freud “the exceptions” 1916 “we all demand reparation for early wounds to our narcissism, our self love”
- Richard is a hateful character because of the hate that he was shown.
- Women
- Women - In the Play women are symbol of power.
- In the Hollow crown adaptation - Margaret is the last person on the battle field - scene asserts power.
- Critic Janis Lull - Argues that the female characters divert power away from Richard in the second half and are therefore very powerful.
- Critic Bruce Young - the women are so powerful because they are beyond Richard's control.
- Margaret asserts power through her curses something Queen Elizabeth later wants.
- Queen Elizabeth - "O thou well-skilled in curses/ Teach me how to curse my enemies"
- In the Hollow crown adaptation - Margaret is the last person on the battle field - scene asserts power.
- Richards relationship with women in the play is strained.
- The fact that the women of the play all hate Richard demonstrates Richard's unlikable character that not even his mother could love him.
- Duchess of York - "A grievous burthen was thy birth to me"
- Margaret - "Thou elvish marked, abortive, rooting hog"
- Critic Moulton - he is alienated from the patriarchal masculinity community’ which wraps his ideas of masculinity
- The fact that the women of the play all hate Richard demonstrates Richard's unlikable character that not even his mother could love him.
- Women - In the Play women are symbol of power.
- Supernatural
- The theme of the supernatural is only there to aid the plot.
- Margaret's Character can curse or in ways tell the future like a literal foreshadowing giving the play an almost pantomime effect. She is there to make the York's look blind and plays to the fact that Shakespeare was likely trying to tread lightly as not to make it to obvious to the audience if he had a political view.
- This theme helps make the house of York look like idiots and coincides with Tudor propaganda
- Critic Steven Greenblatt - "nation of enablers"
- Queen Elizabeth - "O thou well-skilled in curses/ Teach me how to curse my enemies"
- Margaret's Character can curse or in ways tell the future like a literal foreshadowing giving the play an almost pantomime effect. She is there to make the York's look blind and plays to the fact that Shakespeare was likely trying to tread lightly as not to make it to obvious to the audience if he had a political view.
- This theme helps make the house of York look like idiots and coincides with Tudor propaganda
- The theme of the supernatural is only there to aid the plot.
- Ambition
- Richard's ambition caused his down fall.
- Critic - Dan Venning “Richard revealed himself to be adept in seizing power and silencing his enemies but wholley an inept as a ruler, leading his country and those who follow him to ruin”
- When Richard had reached his goal he has nothing and feels utaerly alone.
- Richard "no one loves Richard but Richard"
- Ambition is the root of character evil.
- Richard is willing to go through anything to get what he wants
- All the characters decend into greif and chaos beaucse of their ambtion.
- "I wish the bastards dead"
- All the characters decend into greif and chaos beaucse of their ambtion.
- Richard is willing to go through anything to get what he wants
- Richard's ambition caused his down fall.
- Deception
- Deception is what characterises Richard as a villain.
- Richard strives to deceive all the characters in the play, while being an open villain with the audience that fact that he tricks his family make him appear worse then he is.
- Context - Tudor propaganda - betrayal of Richard was what essentially made Henry VII King but treachery was always something royals were wary of.
- These points can be linked via power through deception.
- Both Richard and Buckingham use deception in order to gain power in their inner circles eg the church scene were they cause a scene in order to make Richard look like a better man then he is.
- Richard - "Tongue tied ambition, not replying, yielding To bear the golden yoke of sovereignty
- Both Richard and Buckingham use deception in order to gain power in their inner circles eg the church scene were they cause a scene in order to make Richard look like a better man then he is.
- Richard - "thus i clothe my naked villainy"
- Richard - "and seem a saint, when most i play the devil"
- Richard strives to deceive all the characters in the play, while being an open villain with the audience that fact that he tricks his family make him appear worse then he is.
- Deception is a tool in the bid for power
- Both Richard and Buckingham use deception in order to gain power in their inner circles eg the church scene were they cause a scene in order to make Richard look like a better man then he is.
- Richard - "Tongue tied ambition, not replying, yielding To bear the golden yoke of sovereignty
- Both Richard and Buckingham use deception in order to gain power in their inner circles eg the church scene were they cause a scene in order to make Richard look like a better man then he is.
- Deception is what characterises Richard as a villain.
- Good Vs Evil
- Richard is evil because he is a victim of circumstance himself.
- Non of the characters other then Buckingham know of Richard's evil but continue to treat him poorly eg his mother.
- Interpretation/ critic Modern psychoanalytic perspective may use this damaged relationship to be a means for his evil ways
- Critic - Peter Byrne “sympathy for the devil”
- Duchess of York - "a grievous burthen was thy birth to me"
- Interpretation/ critic Modern psychoanalytic perspective may use this damaged relationship to be a means for his evil ways
- Non of the characters other then Buckingham know of Richard's evil but continue to treat him poorly eg his mother.
- Richmond / Later Henry VII is the supposed good character here swooping in to save England but thus he is portrayed this way because of Tudor propaganda
- Critic - Tillar - Richard was created to be evil so Richmond could lead the nation.
- Richard is evil because he is a victim of circumstance himself.
- Conscience
- Richard's gaining of conscience is his own undoing.
- Characters like Richard and in some ways also Buckingham experience a gain of consciences which become they're undoing.
- Conscience is symbolic of good.
- Interpretation - RSC production in Sam Wanamaker 2019 - Richard is portrayed as taking sick pleasure in the evil deeds that he commits by singing to them
- Critic - Sioban Keenan “there are reasons for Richard’s villainy and he is not without redeeming qualities or a moral compass” - “he is his own harshest critic in the world of the play”
- Ghost scene - Anne "No more then from my soul i mourn for yours" - the ghost show is coming of conscience and guilt.
- Characters like Richard and in some ways also Buckingham experience a gain of consciences which become they're undoing.
- Conscience is symbolic of good.
- Richard's gaining of conscience is his own undoing.
- Love
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