The Contribution of the Supernatural to Richard III

The Contribution of the Supernatural to Richard III

During the Renaissance period people were very superstitious and

England on a whole was an extremely religious country; people believed

in both God and the Devil and Heaven and Hell. They also believed in

prophecies, supernatural and curses. A modern audience would have

reacted very differently to the play than a Shakespearean audience.

The events contained within Richard III must have seemed very real to

a Shakespearean audience as it depicts the historical events of the

rise and fall of Richard III. For a Shakespearean audience these

events happened only a century earlier. To a modern audience it is

viewed as what it is, a dramatisation of a historical event.

The War of the Roses was a civil war in England that lasted from

1455-1487. These thirty years of warfare were even more destructive to

England than the hundred years of warfare had been in the previous

century. Fought between two branches of the Plantagenet family, the

Houses of Lancaster and York, the wars were named after the emblems of

the contending parties: the white rose of York and the red of

Lancaster. Richard’s opening soliloquy refers to the fact that the

Yorkist faction is in the ascendant:-

‘Now is the winter of our discontent

Made glorious summer by this sun of York.’

This is a reference to Richard and his brother Edward IV being

Yorkist.

William Shakespeare’s play Richard III is littered with references to

the supernatural. This contributes to our understanding of the plot of

the play; it also brings excitement to the audience and draws them

into the action of the play. I believe Shakespeare...

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...Anne asked.

Lady Anne asks for revenge with a string of curses. Despite Lady

Anne’s anger her speech pattern remains consistent, she continues to

use repetition as a powerful weapon to complement her anger.

‘…. O cursed be the hand that made these holes, cursed the blood that

let this blood from hence, cursed the heart that had the heart to do

it’

The repetition of ‘cursed’ implies a spell has been cast.

Both Lady Anne and Queen Margaret use curses as a form of control over

the situation. The use of curses is the only power these women

possess.

Richard III took his own destiny and that of his country into his own

hands. He disturbed the natural order of things, and for that God made

pay. To conclude we in the end we say God take his revenge upon

Richard and made him accountable for all his evil doing.