The Significance of Act 3 Scene 7 to Shakespeare's Richard III

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The Significance of Act 3 Scene 7 to Shakespeare's Richard III Richard iii essay Richard the third is the last play in a cycle of eight plays that Shakespeare wrote to dramatize the history of England between 1398-1485. The plays depict the struggle for the crown and in Richard the third it shows how Richard finally gets to the crown by committing lots of murders but then is toppled by Richmond. In this essay I will explore how significant act 3 scene 7 is to the play. In this play Richard is presented as a ingenious man who can easily manipulate others for his sake , he does this through his use of clever language, in act1 scene 2 Richard persuades Anne to marry him In the play Richard is physically deformed and believes he was 'cheated of feature', he means that he was robbed of his good looks and it shows how he thinks he is ugly and deformed. Through out the play Richard does a lot of acting this helps him to manipulate people, in act 3 scene 7 Richard manipulates the people into thinking he is a devoted Christian, he does this by standing 'between two churchmen', he does this so they will think that he is fit to be king. Richard charms the audience as he shares his cunning plans with them in his 'asides' this gives him great audience appeal. Richard wants to become king as he is power hungry. In many ways Buckingham is a lot like Richard, he is very politically aware and helps come up the plans to make Richard become king like theone where he gets Richard to 'stand between two churchmen' when the public come round. Buckingham is Richards right hand man and through out the play he does his best to... ... middle of paper ... ...when Buckingham talks to the major about Richard saying that he is not an Edward' 'lulling on a lewd love bed but on his knees at meditation. This is used as it shows two contrasting characters and shows how 'good' Richard is compared to Edward. An example of irony used in this scene would be when Richard says 'since you will buckle fortune on my back. I must have patience to endure the load' .This is an ironic statement as they did not put the 'fortune' on Richards back but he made them chose him. An example of rhetoric used in this scene would be when Buckingham put forward reasons for Richard to become king in a very persuasive way. Buckingham tells Richard that it is his 'right of birth' to become king, this example of rhetoric is used to manipulate the citizens into thinking that they chose him to be king.

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