Hi all.
Would love a bit of feedback for this essay I wrote. Did this in 50 minutes (typing) but with no notes. Its around 1000 words - so obviously if I had wrote it out I would have condensed some of my ideas and the word count would have been around 800-900 words.
Thanks to anyone who might be able to help
Not everyone in the play is as foolish as Richard believes him or her to be. How accurate are Richard’s judgements?As one of Shakespeare’s most iconic history plays, Richard III chronicles both the Machiavellian rise to power and the subsequent short reign of one of England’s most controversial monarchs. Taking many creative liberties, Shakespeare makes an interesting exploration into the rise and the fall of a man, and how those around him play a major part in both his success and his downfall. As Richard does everything within his power to secure his “instalment… in the seat royal of this famous isle”, the supporting characters within the play are constantly manipulated and fooled by Richard’s flattery and public façade, which only masks his truly evil and unscrupulous nature. However it must be noted that not everyone is so easily deceived by Richard, and much to his surprise those he believes to be foolish are in fact not.
There are many foolish characters within the play and Richard takes full advantage of this, manipulating them for his own political advantage. Firstly the “simple, plain Clarence” is “cast in darkness”, completely unaware that his own brother is scheming and duplicitous. He does not recognise the double meaning behind Richard’s vow of “I will deliver you or else lie for you” and just moments before he is drowned “in the malmsey butt within” by the two rogue murderers, Clarence begs them not to “slander” Richard’s name, “for he is kind.” This is a poignant illustration of just how convincing Richard’s deceptions can be, and how Richard uses this skill on those he believes to be foolish enough to fall for his trickery. Furthermore Richard is correct in his assumption that the grieving and recently widowed Lady Anne will be easily fooled. In the opening act of the play Anne and Richard engage in a “keen encounter of (their) wits” filled with the language of stichomythia. Richard attempts to flatter Anne and informs her that it was her “heavenly face that set (him) on” during his murder spree during the Battle of Tewkesbury. Richard knows that Anne will come to her senses and see the precarious nature of her personal circumstances as a widow in a Yorkist society, and ultimately “become captive to his honey words.” Despite her initial hatred and contempt for Richard as he is the one to blame for the “fall of virtuous Lancaster”, Richard is correct in his assumption that Anne is foolish enough to fall for his flattery and charm, and that even “a woman in this humour (can be) won.” Despite being able to take advantage of the more foolish and impressionable characters, Richard is not always so accurate in the way that he reads people.
Richard is at times quite mistaken about those around him, particularly when he is trying to ascertain who will be foolish enough to believe his lies and fabrications For instance, he severely underestimates the savviness and the knowledge of the English commoners. Richard, ready to ascend to the throne, calls upon his accomplice Buckingham to “play the orator” and convince the English people of his suitability for the role as King of England. Richard believes that a few misconstrued facts and falsehoods will persuade the commoners, but when Buckingham speaks with the people at Guildhall he finds them to be “like dumb statues or beathing stones.” Clearly unsuccessful in his attempts to persuade the civilians, Richard comes to the realisation that they are not as foolish as what he initially perceived them to be. By “standing between two churchmen” and “playing the maid’s part”, Richard has to go to drastic lengths to convince the people of his suitability as a good leader. Through the use of several window scenes throughout the play, Shakespare highlights the idea that they are not foolish and deceivable as what Richard thinks they are. The three citizens in Act II express their concerns that Richard is a man “full of danger” who will “touch (them) all too near.” Moreover in Act III the Scrivener is another example of someone who has not fallen victim to Richard’s trickery. In a rhyming couplet which concludes his brief soliloquy he foresees that “all will come to naught when such ill dealing must be seen in thought.” This all reflects the fact that Richard tends to be mostly concerned with convincing the aristocracy of the legitimacy of his claim to the throne, and that he ignores the fact that the English civilians are not as foolish as what he would assume them to be. On a further note, Richard’s prejudices and misogynistic attitude also blinds him from seeing that not all those around him are as foolish as what he would first consider them to be.
Richard’s contempt for women and their presence within a male-dominated society deprived him from understanding that not all women were going to be susceptible to his villiany and deception. In Act I Margaret’s extravagantly detailed curses which she directs towards all members of the royal family create an extremely ominous sense of foreboding for the audience, yet Richard laughs off her metaphorical descriptions that he is a “elvish-mark’d, abortive, rooting hog.” He belittles her when he “repents (his) part thereof that (he) has done to her”, implying that her fall from grace has caused her to become quite mad. However when Margaret’s “curses fall upon (their) heads”, it becomes clear that Richard should have taken further notice of the prophesies and curses made by Margaret earlier in the play. Furthermore Richard believes Queen Elizabeth to be a “shallow, changing woman” when he becomes convinced that he has won the hand of her daughter in marriage. However Richard could not be further from truth - Elizabeth has in fact “heartily consented” to Richmond marrying her daughter. Once again Richard has underestimated Elizabeth to be a foolish and deceivable woman, but in fact she has turned the tables on him and he is the one who has become victim to deception and disloyalty.
Richard’s ability to hide his true feelings and “moralise two meanings in one word” enables him to take advantage of the numerous foolish people around him. However his downfall is self-inflicted due to his belief that everyone will be easily manipulated and fooled into falling for his trickery. Once other characters become harder to convince, and some also learn to blur the lines between appearance and reality themself, Richard utlimately meets his fatal flaw.
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