Two Text Responses - Richard III

[Tobias Funke]

•   Discuss the importance of conscience to Richard III.

Amidst the corrupt and volatile political climate that results from the War of the Roses, Shakespeare’s Richard III depicts fifteenth century Yorkist England as a largely corrupt and fragile environment. As a result, the characters embody a larger capacity to be corrupt and rather ignorant in their actions, allowing a large amount of characters to willingly ignore their consciences, no matter how fierce. Shakespeare demonstrates that in a disregard of one’s conscience, that evil in Richard is able to succeed to the throne. However, the women of the play are characters that do acknowledge their consciences, but are ultimately powerless in protecting England from the heinous deeds Richard commits. Nevertheless, once there is an augmented acknowledgement of one’s own conscience, it’s importance is exemplified in Richard’s resultant and inevitable downfall.

The overall disregard of conscience is evident in the large number of characters that willingly subject themselves to committing Richard’s heinous deeds. Here, the importance of conscience is conveyed in that an acknowledgement of one’s actions could lead to the preventable nature of Richard’s acts. Part of this stems from the ignorance of characters to act without proper consideration. The Second Murderers existent degree of remorse in Clarence’s “most grievous murder” juxtaposes with that of the First Murder, who does not seek to “repent” for his sins, preferring the “reward”. This encapsulates the wretched state of England, wherein monetary “reward” takes preference over being “damned” for murdering someone. In addition, Buckingham acts similarly in neglect of his conscience, choosing to instead submit himself to Richard’s vile demands for the “reward” of the “Earldom of Hereford”. He also shows similar regret once he realises he will no receive the reward, opting to defect while his “fearful head is on”. In this, the powerless nature of those who do acknowledge their conscience is shown, in their inability to prevent the actions of the immoral.

In Richard, the women of the play possess a much greater level of alertness and awareness towards the suspicious nature of Richard’s actions, but are largely unsuccessful in circumventing his activity. Margaret boasts an extreme level of foresight, correctly predicting “accidents” and pinpointing Richard’s true “inward” nature as a “murderous villain”, yet she is largely ignored due to the common consensus that “she is lunatic”.  Hence, Margaret is ultimately powerless although she has an existing conscience in that seeks to warn those around her of Richard, and as a result the characters only realize the truth to Margaret’s statements once they reach their end. Similarly, Queen Elizabeth bears the same level of conscience in sternly asserting a reluctance to be swayed by Richard’s “honey words” throughout the play. She is requested of Richard to allow her daughter to marry him, but in a stichomythic duel in which she is victorious, Richard’s actions are thwarted in his bid to gain power. She is able to exert this newfound power due to the confidence she is afforded once Richard’s accomplices defect, and his flaws become further noticeable. In this, the importance of conscience is expressed through the increasingly evident ability of those acting in accordance with their conscience to thwart Richard’s intolerable deeds.

Richard’s scandalous actions are ultimately halted once his former followers notice the moral implications of their actions. Richard also expresses the sheer audacity of the conscience he had to ignore to reach his powerful state, in that his conscience “condemns him for a villain”. Richard’s eventual downfall and climax of his power coincides with his “other self” Buckingham’s defection to the other side. His reluctance to adher to Richard’s orders in “wishing the bastards dead” is indicative of this conception, where Buckingham requests “some little thought”. Buckingham is considering the moral implications of this action, which is the first point he in fact acknowledges his conscience, after adhering to Richard’s requests for the most part of the play. Further, Richmond even goes to declare that one’s conscience has a role in defeating Richard, stating “god and our good conscience fight on our side”. In this, Shakespeare is able to convey the level of importance one’s conscience bears in the context of Richard, as it is what is necessary to prevent Richard’s evil.

Richard’s power acts in accordance with the number of people who recognize their consciences. That is, when those who ignore the moral implications of their actions is high, Richard is able to rather easily ascend to the throne. However, once more of Richard’s allies began to consider these moral implications, this effectively amounted to Richard’s downfall. As such, Shakespeare conveys the influence of one’s conscience as being a crucial aspect in how Richard is able to reach such positions of power, and eventually be defeated.

[Tobias Funke]

Richard’s succession as king is the turning point in the play. Before that he is engaging and amusing, after that he is sudden and callous. Discuss.

Shakespeare depicts the eponymous character of Richard, as a beguiling and appealing character from the outset of his historical reimagining of 15th Century Yorkist England in King Richard III. This is in part due to Shakespeare’s uncanny ability to romanticise evil in Richard’s conniving behaviour that allows the audience to be compelled by his nature. However, his overall charm begins to subside as his evil becomes increasingly inexcusable, and this coincides with his reign as king. Richard, in becoming king, has achieved everything he has set out to achieve, and thereupon lacks a goal with which to motivate himself. As such, he loses the confidence of his accomplices as his acts tell more of a desperate being. Interestingly, it is once he becomes King that Richard is portrayed at his most humanistic level.

From the commencement of the play, Richard exudes a brilliant awareness of those around him, which allows him to so impressively manipulate his peers and in turn excite his audience. The audience is immediately from the opening soliloquy, aware of Richard’s “[determination] to prove a villain”, which is only revealed to the audience as if to include them in his journey. In this, Richard’s heinous acts are romanticised in their ability to entertain and impress. He adopts this awareness in his wooing of Lady Anne, who makes an ‘about-face’ towards Richard after alluding him to a “devil”. Upon noticing her frailty and inability to protect herself, Richard offers her a ‘choice’ to “take up the sword again, or take up [him]”, evidently wary that Anne would resign herself towards the latter option. As such, the audience cannot help be garner some sense of astonishment in his ability to woo Anne against the odds, having murdered those closest to her in accordance with being “cheated of feature”. Further, Richard’s quips about whether there “has ever [been] woman in this nature woo’d?” seek to enhance the audience’s overall astonishment and in turn act in an engaging manner for his audience. The audience is ultimately compelled by Richard’s stature, in his expert exertion of evil that warrants commending.

Richard, as a result the aimlessness that transpires from his becoming King, begins to lose his charm and swagger. As King, Richard has achieved what he had intended from his opening soliloquy, and his subsequent actions merely act as insurance for his reign to power. These actions however, are mostly of an intolerable nature for Richard’s followers, and perhaps even the audience who had so easily been encapsulated earlier. This is most telling in his declining relationship with his “other-self” Buckingham - who was a pivotal player in helping Richard to the throne – whereupon being requested by Richard to kill the two Prince’s requests “some little breath” to assess his moral compass and the implications of his actions. For Buckingham - who had existed for an extended period of time as Richard’s consort – to “pause” in adhering to his orders after having adhered to a plethora of other heinous acts, exemplifies how unacceptable Richard’s actions have become. Here, Shakespeare is also encouraging the audience to reconsider whether Richard’s actions are can still be condoned, and this is the true turning point of the play, and Richard’s being. Nevertheless, Richard is still able to show that in spite of his evil, he is still human.

As Richard nears his inevitable demise, he shows glimpses of his humanistic attributes, reconsidering his morality. After having had a rather cryptic nightmare, Richard is forced to consider his conscience, something he has at least in his ‘outward appearance’ completely ignored. In this, another, perhaps more genuine side of Richard is portrayed. His conscience has existed to do nothing except “condemn [Richard] for a villain”, and this is not lost on him, aware of the bleak reception he will receive upon death. Shakespeare, here does not portray a Richard that is at appealing to the audience, nor is he abhorrent. Instead, the audience is now akin to Richard’s underlying and unavoidable frailty, in light of his desperation and weakness, and as such lacks any engaging aura that he had once so powerfully taken advantage of.

Shakespeare’s portrayal of Richard III, is one that predominantly upholds a high level of captivation for his audience as he ascends to the throne. However, as Richard’s power plateau’s and his ambitions are set in lack of any perceivable goal, his appeal evidently wanes in place of a desperate and intolerable tyrant. Nevertheless, Richard’s character is still able to comply to a humanistic standpoint which he had been lacking.

[cltf]

For the first topic, you have to to consider that everyone has a conscience, Richard has one and that is why he fails, he suppresses it for the most part of the play, but it ultimately returns and you notice it in his sporadic change in mannerism. Once you realise that all characters have a conscience, the prompt very much becomes, about what Shakespeare attempts to tell the audience about conscience through the characters. Like you need a conscience, if gone unchecked there are devastating consequences.
I suggest you use longer quotes instead of one/two words quotes and don't repeat them. 8/10

Second topic, quite well handled, you started off really well, but then half way through died down. Other than that, work on your quotations. 8.5/10

[BigFunt]

For the first topic, you have to to consider that everyone has a conscience, Richard has one and that is why he fails, he suppresses it for the most part of the play, but it ultimately returns and you notice it in his sporadic change in mannerism. Once you realise that all characters have a conscience, the prompt very much becomes, about what Shakespeare attempts to tell the audience about conscience through the characters. Like you need a conscience, if gone unchecked there are devastating consequences.
I suggest you use longer quotes instead of one/two words quotes and don't repeat them. 8/10

Second topic, quite well handled, you started off really well, but then half way through died down. Other than that, work on your quotations. 8.5/10

i don't aggree that he fails because his conscience returns.


Richard fails, because of his lack of conscience. By inverting the normal order of things, he consciously constructed a world that is bereft of compassion and religion hence it was inevitable that he died. It is morally untenable for a man to live like richard is. Yes, maybe his conscience begins to plague him, but he reaffirms his villainy in his final soliloquy and takes to Bosworth field, as much a villain as he was at the start. He does not die because of a return to humanity, moreover he dies because a force that embodies all that Richard rejects arrives as salvation.

This is my reading, though

I'm interested to see what evidence you have that supports your idea that it is because "Richard has one" that he fails.

[Tobias Funke]

While I don't think it is because Richard has a conscience that he fails, it would be fair enough to suggest that because his conscience reaches a point where it is simply so vast that it can no longer be ignored, that contributes to Richard's downfall. He is undeniably weaker as a result.

[cltf]

While I don't think it is because Richard has a conscience that he fails, it would be fair enough to suggest that because his conscience reaches a point where it is simply so vast that it can no longer be ignored, that contributes to Richard's downfall. He is undeniably weaker as a result.

That's more or less what I meant to say, the are a multitude of factors that lead to Richard's eventual down fall. However the return of his conscience is as one might put it the "nail in the coffin". He is flooded by a plethora of emotions previously suppressed along with his conscience, and their return renders Richard essentially powerless, the timing is synonymous with Shakespeare's depiction of the dark skies, leading up to the final battle at bosworth and Richard's penultimate demise. The prompt is asking to discuss the importance of conscience, and IMO, Shakespeare times the return to emphasize the devastating consequences of suppressing it.

When Richard's conscience returns, in his soliloquy he states how he is "so far in blood that sin plucks on sin", he finally understands the magnitude of his actions and obviously there is no way back. “I rather hate myself for hateful deeds committed by myself” “There is no creature that loves me. And if I die, mo soul will pity me” respectively support that notion. Richard attempts to cast his conscience away again, but does so falsely, or not convincingly depends how you interpret it. In essence Shakespeare points out that everyone has a conscience, you can suppress it as much as you want, but it was like return, and Richard is a paradigm of the effects of casting aside one's conscience, and the effects of it should it return. So when I said he fails, it is because Richard fails to understand the importance of having one.