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The complex character of King Richard II
The complex character of King Richard II
Shakespeare's development as a playwright
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William Shakespeare often examines the personal transformation of characters in his works. His frequent illustrations of changing players most likely suggests that he is a true believer in the idea of people being able to emotionally grow. Moreso, the author essentially endorses the thought of developing humanity as a living being. Parallel to King Richard in Richard II, he illustrates many characters throughout his works whom undergo similar personal growth. Oftentimes these personal changes occur when a character suffers great loss in life. In this particular play these changes give the readers a chance to develop a bit of fondness in the once ignorant king. Most readers would normally accept positive changes within the mind and soul of characters. In Richard II, Shakespeare depicts the personal stages of King Richard. Ultimately, Richard is illustrated as one who finally embraces humanity, and, in turn, affects the readers’ final response to the ever-changed king in a positive way. In the commencement of the play, Richard is an arrogant leader who simply wants the title of king, and disregards any civil duties he should be regulating. The reader response is collectively negative during the beginning acts because he is inconsiderate of others and does nothing to help the welfare of his own country. He believes that his god-given rights to rule place him above all others. With this mindset he rationalizes acts of ill-favored behavior and a lack of true monarchial control. As Henry Bolingbroke and Thomas Mowbray feud and hope to settle their differences in a battle, Richard initially approves of the idea. However, at the actual time and venue he calls it off after selfishly discovering if either man is killed it will... ... middle of paper ... ...n, but insinuates seven years of bad luck according to most cultural superstitions. In turn, this bad luck represents his foreseeable death. The king has finally evolved into a normal, feeling man. Throughout these different stages that Richard experiences, the reader reactions change as well. Although there is negative feedback throughout the first half, it seems as if Richard’s character is supposed to slowly elicit sympathy from the reader. In a journal article Paula Blank asserts, “Richard seems, for some readers, to emerge as the victim rather than the perpetrator of a crime.” (Blank, 328). By cleverly assuming the position of victim by the end, the King captures the emotions and feelings of many readers; thus, William Shakespeare orchestrates riveting transformations for King Richard in Richard II, and in return creates evolving reactions from the reader.
Richard II was one of Shakespeare's political works depicting the rise and fall of King Richard II. Richard became king of England as a boy at 10 years of age, although his advisors made most of the political decisions of the kingdom until he matured. During this maturation period, Richard was more interested in learning about aesthetic things in life rather than things more responsible to the monarch. He had very little experience and talent in the areas of military tactics and his decisions relating to the monarch seemed arbitrary.
From the beginning of the play, the character of Richard is depicted as amiss. Thomas More’s account of King Richard states that King Richard“was malicious, wrathful, envious, and, from afore his birth ever forward” (More, 2005:10).King Richard’s mother, the Duchesse of York is said to have had a hard labour at his birth. Richard is said to have come into the wor...
Richard the II has been a central play to analyze and revise due to the continuous debate of King Richard's personality. The debate revolves around the difference in King Richard's public versus private self, whether he was as powerful as he appeared on the throne compared to behind curtains. Margaret Shewring, author of Shakespeare in Performance: Richard the II
In Richard II, Shakespeare portrays King Richard II as an unreliable leader. Richard II is highly self-absorbed and neglects to take the common folk into account when making decisions. Because of his narcissism, Richard disregards the consequences of his actions. One of King Richard’s main concerns in the play stems from his desire to acquire John of Gaunt’s possessions shortly after he passes, saying, “Think what you will, we seize into our hands / His plate, his goods, his money, and his lands” (2.1.209-210). Richard demonstrates his relentless motives to obtain Gaunt’s material possessions and land as he persistently insists on doing so even after the Duke of York expresses his reluctance. He showcases his unjustly actions, as well, for he conspires to take the possessions of his uncle that are rightfully Bolingbroke’s, for John of Gaunt is Bo...
Shakespeare, William, Richard III. Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine (eds.) New York: Washington Square Press, 1996.
Richard is also very careful to make himself always appear in the best light possible in his attempts to gain the throne. He must appear the doting suitor, the loving brother, the kind uncle, even though this could not be further from the truth. He fakes his emotions; from his ‘love’ of the Lady Anne, and eventually, after her death, his niece, to his sorrow and sympathies for the deaths of the two young boys. He is always working to present himself in the best manner possible to those around him, because he wants to be seen as someone who can be trusted, and will be what is best for the country. He is however, very unhappy with the current state of affairs. He complains that he was born deformed and ugly, and bitterly grieves his bad luck. He vows to
Gifted with the darkest attributes intertwined in his imperfect characteristics, Shakespeare’s Richard III displays his anti-hero traits afflicted with thorns of villains: “Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous / By drunken prophecies, libels, and dreams” (I.i.32-33). Richard possesses the idealism and ambition of a heroic figure that is destined to great achievements and power; however, as one who believes that “the end justifies the means”, Richard rejects moral value and tradition as he is willing to do anything to accomplish his goal to the crown. The society, even his family and closest friends, repudiate him as a deformed outcast. Nevertheless, he cheers for himself as the champion and irredeemable villain by turning entirely to revenge of taking self-served power. By distinguishing virtue ethics to take revenge on the human society that alienates him and centering his life on self-advancement towards kingship, Richard is the literary archetype of an anti-hero.
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.
The task which Shakespeare undertook was to mold the hateful constitution of Richard's Moral; character. Richard had to contend with the prejudices arising from his bodily deformity which was considered an indication of the depravity and wickedness of his nature. Richard's ambitious nature, his elastic intellect, and his want of faith in goodness conspire to produce his tendency to despise and degrade every surrounding being and object, even as his own person. He is never sincere except when he is about to commit a murder.
Shakespeare constructs King Richard III to perform his contextual agenda, or to perpetrate political propaganda in the light of a historical power struggle, mirroring the political concerns of his era through his adaptation and selection of source material. Shakespeare’s influences include Thomas More’s The History of King Richard the Third, both constructing a certain historical perspective of the play. The negative perspective of Richard III’s character is a perpetuation of established Tudor history, where Vergil constructed a history intermixed with Tudor history, and More’s connection to John Morton affected the villainous image of the tyrannous king. This negative image is accentuated through the antithesis of Richards treachery in juxtaposition of Richmond’s devotion, exemplified in the parallelism of ‘God and Saint George! Richmond and victory.’ The need to legitimize Elizabeth’s reign influenced Shakespeare’s portra...
The Derek Jacobi production of Richard II provides its own answers to many of the ambiguities posed by the text alone. Richard is portrayed as an ineffective ruler ripe for overthrow, and Bullingbrook as a more capable man boosted to power by the scheming of the Machiavellian Northumberland. Many other interpretations are valid -- indeed, some of this production's choices were made easier by judicious cuts in the script -- but this production provides an entertaining, reasonable, and self-consistent interpretation of the welter of events surrounding the deposition of a king. And, in so doing, the production proves the almost limitless variety of theater, particularly of Shakespeare.
From the outset of the play, it is obvious that Richard subscribes to the majority of the Machiavellian principles. Certainly, he is not ashamed or afraid to plot heinous murder, and he does so with an ever-present false front. "I do mistake my person all this while,"1 he muses, plotting Anne's death minutes after having won her hand. He will not even entertain the ideas in public, demanding they "Dive...down to [his] soul."2 He knows that he must be cunning and soulless to succeed in his tasks. Richard also knows it is essential to guard against the hatred of the populace, as Machiavelli warned.
King Richard II is Shakespeare's example of a king who removes himself from the reality of the common people. Richard views his position as a source of amusement. His "cares" as King, other than an opportunity for an agreeable audience, are merely a burden. Instead of investigating the accusations of treachery from Henry and Mawbrick, he exiles both men as an easy way out. Richard was born a King, and knows no life other than that of royalty. Unfortunately the lesson that must know men to rule them costs him the thrown. Richard's lesson influences his usurper and his usurper's heir to the thrown, demonstrating to them both the value of humility.
In King Richard III Shakespeare presents the timeless notion of the inevitable connection between the moral rectitude of the political power and the condition of the State by illustrating the tragic consequences of Richard’s fraudulent pursuits for power. Set in the Elizabethan era following the Yorks’ victory in the War of the Roses, the 16thC doctrine of royal absolutism is epitomized by Buckingham’s hyperbolic extolment “the supreme seat, the throne majestical”. Through this, Shakespeare illustrates a hierarchical society that strictly upholds canons of the Divine Right of Kings and the Great Chain of Being. However, through the diabolic imaging of Richard as “a tyrannous villain”, the play reflects the politically correct endorsements of the Tudor ...
This is a prime example of Richard using his authority by way of rulings and pronouncements rather than action, even to the point of disallowing an action. Bolingbroke, on the other hand, is quite ready to do battle no matter what the consequences. Moments before Richard puts a stop to the proceedings, Bolingbroke says, ". . . let no noble eye profane a tear / For me, if I be gorged with Mowbray's spear" (1.3.58-59). Here is a man who is resolved in his intent.