A requirement for college is a course determined by the university. I got a shakespeare course, during which we have read Henry V and Richard III already.
Everyone in my class seems to think that Richard is inherently evil, a static character. But I disagree. One of his main features is a deformity; a club hand or foot of some kind. Shakespeare could have created him like this to mean that he was evil, but if it's part of his character story then it creates an entirely new inner dialogue for Richard. People in the time he lived believed that if someone was deformed it was because something was wrong with his soul or personality. Richard clearly grew up with that around him, and it became a huge burden put on him by society, his family, his friends, and his mother.
There's a point in the play where Richard asks for his mother's blessing and she insults him, even though at that point he hadn't done anything blatantly wrong.
I think that to be rejected in such a manner one's whole life, in addition to bearing the pressure of constantly being in the public eye, Richard could have a severely warped view of himself, perhaps believing that he's less of a human than the rest of them, or that his destiny is to be evil, even though he didn't have to be. When you don't have the restraints of common deceny, you can do anything to get what you want.
And what Richard wanted was love. But he felt that he couldn't achieve it, so he sought respect and power instead, thinking it would satiate his yearning. When it didn't, he thought it was because he wanted more power, so he kept going and going until finally he is killed in the end of the play.
I think that if Richard had lived therapy could have changed his perspective and behavior about a lot of things.
4 comments:
I suppose you know of the wide agreement among historians that Shakespeare's Richard bears little resemblance to the real man, at least as far as physique and character are concerned. It was written during the later Tudor period (Elizabethan) when there were political reasons for blackening his reputation.
Amazing insight. All that glitters isn't gold, and all that doesn't glitter is not.
Oh I know, yes, but I still think the character is more developed than that.
I think it's interesting that where you are, the college chooses one course for you to take.
We're reading Shakespeare here, too - but since I tested out of English101, I decided to delve into poetry. I'm no good at analyzing poetry or understanding what's going on, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to remedy that. Essentially, I stick with Shakespearean sonnets.
Looks like you've got quite the psychological profile on Richard, btw. It makes sense to me, although I'm sure that if I read "Richard III," I wouldn't have really analyzed the characters since I'd be more focused on the story (I can be so single-minded sometimes).
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