Richard III

Richard III

We know that the play was written under the Tudor dynasty. So Richard III was labelled as an usurper. However the history is not about a violent and ruthless king like in the play.

And there is no evidence in history to indicate he was hunchback.

Shakespeare did not invent anything completely new; his plays are all founded on real sources.

Richard III was written before 1597, the date of its first printing. But the first performance has been dated back to 1594. 

The character of Richard is modelled on Vice of the Morality Plays and on the Senecan criminal hero.

According to Shakespeare, rhetoric is the maker of history: people who can make a real speech are the winners. Even Richard uses rhetoric to delineate his own character and to persuade and dominate others.

This tragedy can still be considered a Senecan tragedy, like Macbeth and Hamlet, because of the presence of curses, prophecies and warnings, mostly uttered by Margaret, Henry VI's widow, who represents the past.

The main character of the plot is Richard Gloucester himself. His soliloquies, his asides, his detailed orders to subordinates, his threats and warning to his enemies are rich of announcements of acts and s.

The nature of Richard it could be sum up in the savagery which prevails everywhere around him.

His crowning is the the turning point after which Richard is seen as the visctim of his own choices.

He acts bravely despite his despairs until his death.

All the characters of the play are linked to a pattern of guilt and expiation, of crime and punishment.

First act

Richard decides to get the Crown of England for himself, even if he is not one of the direct successors. He aims a secret blow against Clarence, his brother. So Clarence is confined by King Edward IV to the Tower of London. Here Clarence is murdered. So Richard marries Lady Anne, in order to strengthen his cause.