Richard The III Literary Devices

William Shakespeare’s Richard the III revolves around the Duke of Gloucester, Richard, and his treacherous plan of lying, cheating and murdering in order to become king. In this excerpt of Act 1 scene 2, Richard has just completed one of his first major steps to becoming a villain; he has succeeded in wooing lady Anne, a potentially important political figure in the future, to his side. Alone on stage, he remarks on how surprisingly easy a task it was. He is now confident in becoming a villain to achieve his goals. The scene is meant to reveal Richard’s character through a variety of literary devices, as he starts to develop a sense of arrogance and sense of superiority. He now is starting to believe that he has a full understanding of how

to twist love and emotions.
The passage starts off with Richard gloating about his recent success.

His soliloquy opens up with two rhetorical questions as he congratulates himself. He mockingly asks himself and the audience if there was ever a “woman in this humour wooed” or “won”. His use of anaphora by repeating the words “was ever” is meant to show off his pride with his manipulation skills. He’s emphasizing the fact that for the first time possibly ever, someone has gotten a woman who previously despised them from the bottom of her heart to love them within minutes. He then makes it clear that he’s now looking down on Anne by saying that he “will have her, but he will not keep her for long.” Immediately through these first few lines, Richard’s character is revealed to be inconsiderate, and at the same time, it’s developing a sense of arrogance. His stating of “not keeping her for long” also refers to his eagerness to become king as soon as possible so he can dispose of her, showing a newfound sense of urgency with his plan resulting from the success. By implying that Anne is only a small part of his plan, he reveals his intent to use facades not just for Anne, but as many times as he needs until he is seated on the

throne.
Richard then makes it clear how difficult the task was by recalling the many things that could have gone wrong in this wooing. The use of zeugma by joining the verbs in the actions “killed her husband” and “take her” with Richard himself is meant to show the relationship between his past and recent actions and how distant they are from each other, this being the cause of Anne’s wavering emotions. He’s clearly stating that he’s just done the impossible. Richard continues to highlight the effect of past actions between him and success by reciting all the things that could’ve been an obstacle for him. He has killed both Anne’s husband and his father, as well as carrying out the wooing in her darkest times. Shakespeare uses imagery to emphasize the idea that Anne was in ruins by describing her as having “curses in her mouth, tears in her eyes” and “the bleeding witness of my hatred by”. Richard imagines that she also had “God, her conscience, and these bars” (his sins) against him and himself only “the plain devil and dissembling looks”. Yet, he still wins her over, “all the world to nothing.” It’s no surprise then that he feels superior as a villain, and his reference to the devil and his looks as his friends shows him embracing his evil self. Richard is now incredibly contempt and confident with his ability to act, as if he was not only congratulating himself, but also mocking the idea of love and how easy it was to obtain it.
The mood in Richard’s speech takes a darker turn as he goes on to call everyone else inferior to him, and that he believes the whole situation is in his hands. He foils himself by comparing himself to Anne’s late husband Edward. Edward, “a sweeter and a lovelier gentleman, framed in the prodigality of nature”, is the complete opposite of Richard’s cheating habits. He personifies nature by saying that Edward’s death was “prodigal”, a poor waste of a life by nature, something that his own life could not even hope to match. Richard even goes on to say that Edward is someone “the spacious world cannot afford”; the world cannot afford to have so many pure, honorable people. The placing of the verb “afford” at the end of the sentence, a form of hypophora and the use of personification for the world makes emphasis on Edward’s value to Anne. He emphasizes how not even the world, with so many people living on it, has the ability to make everyone as pure a person as Edward. All of this, of course, is meant to be even more of a self-congratulation for Richard. He remarks on how what he believes what were were a few simple words were enough to direct Anne’s love from Edward towards him, implying that love is trivial. He stresses the foiling through the use of anaphora on the words “on me”, saying that she chooses to direct her love towards him, him of all people. His use of hyperbole by describing himself as someone “whose all not equals Edward’s moiety” (He is not half the man Edward is) signifies that his character was far worse than Edward to start with, but now he has triumphed over Edward. By doing so, he claims he is superior to Edward, that evil can erase good, and that despite his deformities, his words can make him better than anyone else. He, who has “made her widow to a woeful bed”, a metaphor for Anne feeling alone whenever night falls and she sees her empty bed, is confident that she will no longer “abase her eyes” (look down) on him.
Richard’s arrogance and superiority becomes even more evident when he draws the line between him and everyone else. He compares himself to Anne, believing himself superior to the point where he refers to her as a denier, an oxymoron meaning a coin without any worth, as she is a queen with no power. He remarks on how he has mistaken his person all this while, which can refer both to his disgust at how he had to go as low as to marry a widowed, powerless queen or how he didn’t know that it was in him to be so clever that he almost fooled himself. He may also be talking about his surprise that Anne fell for him so easily and that he expected her to have a much stronger will. He follows up with a number of sarcastic remarks about how he’s so confident with the situation and he’s so above anyone else that he should go and buy a mirror just to admire himself. Richard, someone who hates people who waste their times with reflections is so “crept in favour with himself” that he is willing to joke about doing it himself, demonstrating his pride. Richard’s willingness to “adorn his body” might be his belief on the beauty of evil in a sarcastic remark. He’s embracing a bit of his deformity as he is getting ready to embrace his new villainous title of king, confident that he’ll get it.
The soliloquy is wrapped up at the end when Richard declares how he will follow up on the plan.

He intends to “turn yon fellow” (the dead king) in his grave”, then “return lamenting” to his love. This restates that he is willing to continue with this facade for as long as it takes, as many times as it takes until he achieves his ultimate goal. It is evident he looks down at Anne’s father due to his improper burial, likely because he was a previous enemy, but also displaying how he shows little respect for the dead and for the promises to others. His unwillingness to keep his word relates to how he sees everyone else as inferior, hence he sees no reason to actually keep his promise. He makes no hesitation in this decision, for he realises himself that there will no longer be a place for him once he stops his tyranny. His last remark, a couplet, has two potential meanings. One can interpret it as apostrophe, when he directly talks to the sun, or a metaphor, the sun representing the king. In both cases, he uses the metonymy of his shadow as his evil sins and the metaphor of his mirror as him reflecting back on these sins. It’s as if he’s saying: “let there be peace, and let the sun (the sun or the king) shine until I'm king. I shall continue to use my heinous methods until I can be seated on the throne, thinking back and looking down at the crimes i

committed.”
This section represents a reveal in character for Richard, as it is the first time his sense of superiority and confidence are revealed, and his belief that emotions will go his way. This confidence ultimately leads to both his success and his demise. This is an interesting section as here, Richard is already distinguishing himself from the others as if he’s already king. This separation is what also shows his flaws as a king, as once he distances himself too far, when he needs the help of companions, he won’t have any left. Eventually, the only friends that he has, his own deformity and confidence will consume him before he knows it. His arrogance, however, blinds him greatly to the point where it will eventually be impossible for him to see any other alternative than manipulation and death. Already, it’s taking his toll when he reflects on how clever he was, or just how troubled Anne was at the time for her to have blindly accepted his ring. This passage here really brings out the crookedness of Richard, not physically, but mentally.