We first start to unravel the complex web of deceit which Richard has woven over the eyes of the characters in the play in Act I, Scene III, Richard addresses the characters, onstage and offstage in an oblique and brash manner, "They do me wrong.
and I will not endure it! ", (line 44).Here Richard was referring to the people in court or general public slandering him and spreading rumour, however his description of them is non specific, rather than addressing the people of court by title, his answer is rather generic or anonymous, Richard also repeats this when Lord Rivers interrupts him to defend Queen Elizabeth, only addressing her as "She", thrice consecutively; we are well aware within Elizabethan Society that royalty was given the highest respect, and within the actual tradition of aristocracy, several strict social codes were enforced, Richard's opposition to these rules, shows great disrespect towards the Queen.Although such behaviour from Richard is not executed in a seemingly random fashion, Richard's confidence and dare to oppose these strict rules reinforces the belief that Richard is again executing an intricate plan, further onwards the pace of the script is rapid, and Richard fires off several rhetoric questions which are aimed at the Queen and people defending her (lines 55-60), in order to topple the argument in his favour by placing Elizabeth on the defensive, and this is seen immediately, "I never did incense his majesty....
. (lines 85-89).Richard's language also speaks to us of great conspiracy, he uses religious references to gain the argumentative respect of the other people watching, "By holy Paul...
" (line 45) this is simply used to dramatise Richard's supposed offence, and his brash comments and disrespect are justified by how the other characters perceive his level of irritation is, although the irony remains that Richard is hardly religious, neither offended.This is also another insight into Richard's motivation of seeking the power of the throne that he is prepared to, disrespect the Queen, and even religion itself. While appearing to take offence from being slandered, "I will not endure it! ", Richard is trying to impose on the other characters and the audience that he has a sense of honour, which had been insulted, of which this honour he is able to sidestep any oncoming critique from Queen Elizabeth initially.Queen Elizabeth addresses him with patience, "Brother of Gloucester, you mistake the matter" (line 63), Richard then uses this further and, tests Queen Elizabeth's patience "Our brother is imprisoned by your means" (line 77) this clever play on words then puts Queen Elizabeth on a difficult position, since Richard is well aware that an angry person is easier to overthrow in a game of eloquence, and tries his best to agitate Queen Elizabeth into that angry state.
It is later implied by Rivers that Richard might be King, Richard's reaction to this is interesting, he denies having thought about the throne at all (lines 147-149) denial is a form of sarcasm, and Richard's sarcasm is a dramatic irony to the audience, instead of being confused of what Richard is trying to do, we are rather informed instantly of what Richard is doing, although this is again ironic since Richard's intention is to deceive the other characters, this attempt however is easily transparent to Queen Margaret.Queen Margaret hurls curses at him (lines 215-234) and later on in the play, we see that these curses seemed to be prophecies, until the very near of the scene, the dialogue is simply exchange of patience and intolerance, Richard holds his stance very patiently, and almost disproves Queen Margaret's accusations by making her anger seem on the borderline of insanity. He provokes her by interrupting her, (line 234), and she reacts very aggressively, nevertheless this places Richard on a higher position since Queen Margaret had made herself a target of everyone earlier.Richard sees himself to be king, all his actions are derived from the passion of wanting power, his expectation is for other people to follow under his rule, although more irony is shown as, we see, not only is Richard hardly a character fit for King, but other people, such as Queen Margaret see through his plan, Richard suddenly does not seem as invincible as he previously was perceived to be, and this contrast creates the dramatic conflict in the play, Richard thinks he will be successful, but early signs of weakness in the plan serve as a dramatic irony to build a foundation for the audience to believe that Richard may not be successful in the end.
At the end of the scene, we hear Richard's soliloquy, this intensifies the evil of Richard's character, the majority of Richard's evil or motivations was simply implied through his relationships with the other characters, a direct account of his motivations stirs up the audience, but it also dramatically turns the play on its head, by introducing the murderers onto stage.Richard tells them to "be sudden in the execution" (line 344) this is hardly humane since Clarence is Richard's brother, so the end of the scene serves its purpose of illuminating further on Richard, but more importantly, it introduces the next scene with Clarence, in a very vivid contrast of character and morality. Scene four opens with Clarence in the Tower of London, awakening from a nightmare, Clarence was of course imprisoned due to Richard spreading rumours as we had seen in Act I, scene I.Clarence also says, "That, as I am a Christian faithful man" which then draws up the audience's empathy. Standing alone, Clarence is a religious man, however in comparison to Richard it is an incredibly stark contrast. The dramatic effect formed as a consequence is the audience's hatred of Richard, oppositely reflected into equal (or more) empathy for Clarence.
Clarence then talks about his nightmare, he tells the Keeper how he was sailing on a boat, and then suddenly Richard had pushed him off the boat into the sea (lines 16-19), the theme of prophecies or dramatic ironies has been repeated here, and was introduced in the previous scene with Queen Margaret.Both Queen Margaret and Clarence hold the "truth" of the play, and they are expressed in the form of prophecies, this nightmare itself serves as another witness to Clarence's virtue by seeming clairvoyance. There is a juxtaposition of imagery in Clarence's dream, we're told that he sees, "gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl, Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels" (lines 26-27) against the very macabre imagery of "dead men's skulls" (line 28), "slimy bottom of the deep" (line 32) and "dead bones that lay scattered by" (line 33) are all symbolic representations of Clarence and Richard, and the contrast itself serves as a focal point for alerting the audience to remember that the murderers are coming after Clarence. Clarence is the early symbol of innocence or virtue in the play.From the very beginning and throughout, we have seen much psychological warfare and negativity, Clarence serves as "odd one out" within the midst of such chaos. He attracts the audiences empathy, and also provides yet another reason for the audience to loathe Richard, more so when the murderers arrive and kill Clarence (line 270 onwards), this marks another milestone in Richard's immorality in the race for power.
Ultimately, the characters of Richard and Clarence are not masterfully complex, simply since they are incarnations the earth's oldest dichotomy : Good and Evil, and it was the very fierce riot of Evil which ran through the real society that reflects itself in the Play.The contempt towards women, and the actual War of the Roses are all witnesses to this, what Shakespeare does is, present them in a real, tangible form for the society to witness, which is of course Drama and Playwrite. The fictional story of Richard the III present real issues, however the text of the script is what Shakespeare created to attempt to unweave the reality back into disassociated concepts. The text gives life to Richard the III, who ironically has no regard for life except that of his own, its through this work in the first scene's that Richard had set the foundations for his evil plan, however once you write the beginning, the ending almost writes itself, Richard's plan is not immaculate, and just in the real life how the War of the Roses perished, Richard is set for his own doomed ending too.
