Friday, August 30, 2013
Was Ever Woman in This Humor Wooed?
In Act 1, Scene 2, Richard woos Lady Anne, the daughter-in-law of the former Henry VI, whom Richard killed, and the widow of Edward, the former Prince of Wales, whom Richard also killed. For most of the scene she curses Richard, comparing him to poisonous or vicious animals and even the devil himself. For example she says," Never hung poison on a fouler toad. / Out of my sight! Thous dost infect mine eyes." (1.2.161-2). Yet, by end of the scene she not only refuses to kill Richard, she is wearing his ring as a token of affection. How are we to make sense of this scene? Has she been seduced by Richard? Does she begin to believe his words and love him? Or is she merely resigned to her fate and cannot resist his encroachments? Or perhaps she thinks he is her best chance at regaining prestige and power at court? What is really going on between Richard and Lady Anne?
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I think that the dramatic change in Lady Anne's behavior can be attributed primarily to Richard's incredible smooth talking. His fast-paced and witty responses catch her off guard, such as when she suggests he belongs in hell, and he counters by suggesting that she belongs in his bedroom. More than truly being wooed, I think that Lady Anne is just so surprised at Richard's lack of shame for his actions. He does the exact opposite of what you would expect a man in his position to do; coupled with his grotesque appearance, Lady Anne is shocked at Richard's amazing confidence. I don't think she feels affection for him at this point, but she is so taken aback at what he says that she has no choice but to stand dumbfounded and alter her views.
ReplyDeleteWhether or not Lady Anne believes what Richard is saying is beside the point. She may have believed when he said that he loved her, but it really does not matter; her change of heart and accepting his ring was done grudgingly, and only because he caught her off guard in such a powerful way. When your husband is murdered, you form a picture of his murderer in your mind... you imagine him as an evil scumbag who could never sweet talk anyone. So when Richard comes strolling in acting as if he's been courting Lady Anne from the start, her surprise alone is enough to let him finish his dramatic proposal. Only because Richard acted in such a quirky fashion, only because of his confident wit, did Lady Anne agree to wear his ring.
Although Lady Anne puts on a tough front in the beginning of Act 1, Scene 2, she exemplifies women’s pawn-like roles throughout Richard III. She begins by calling him “a devil”(1.2.46) and wishing his wife to be “more miserable by the death of him/ Than I am made by my young lord and thee.—“(1.2.2809). Lady Anne even goes after far as spitting on Richard out of pure hatred for him.
ReplyDeleteThe first few pages of the text, the reader is under the impression that Lady Anne would, for example, take the weapon Richard hands her and plunge it through his chest to avenge her late husband without a moment of hesitation. She shows signs of being an independent, loyal woman. However, disappointing as ever, Lady Anne, left vulnerable after her husband and son were murdered, foolishly succumbs to Richard’s shallow coos while her husband’s corpse is still in sight. A Shakespearean woman apparently has no time to mourn.
When Richard offers her his ring, claiming that he repented after killing her husband, she replies, “To take is not to give” (1.2.221). Morally, Lady Anne knows it’s wrong to accept the ring, so she hesitates, yet for her own wellbeing, she has to weigh her options. Simply because of the way society worked in Shakespearean times, Lady Anne would struggle with no husband or family in general and socially. Even if she thinks Richard is a “hedgehog”(1.2.109) trying to get into her bedchamber and “fear me both(his heart) are false”(1.2.214), she chooses to cooperate without a promising future or any sign of true love….she ends up with neither.
It’s obvious to the modern day reader that Richard’s blabbering, creepy commentary on her physical beauty is a scheme to get closer to the crown, but for Lady Anne, it is an opportunity to regain power. At the time, being an independent woman in society wasn’t an easy or desirable life for most. However, she should’ve foreseen Richard’s diabolical plot to have her killed and then marry young Elizabeth to take the next step toward the crown. For Lady Anne, it was either being alone or having a shot at power, and she foolishly chose wrong.
There is a lot of mixed emotions through this scene, I agree. I believe her mood changes not as suddenly as you may think. I believe that her feelings progress and she begins to realize the situation that she is in. At first, we find her saying things like: "If ever he have wife, let her be made/More miserable by the death of him/Than I am made by me young lord and thee-"(1.2.27). She is strong and not afraid to put up a fight.
ReplyDeleteI think, though, as the scene progresses, she starts realizing that her husband just died, and she is now all alone and has no one. But, here's a guy, who is in power, who is courting her and telling her that, "You beauty was the cause of that effect-"(1.2.130). Even though he admits in killing her husband, he woos her into believing that because she is so beautiful, he had to do it.
I don't think she was necessarily jumping right into his arms and totally changing her emotions about him. I think she starts to realize that this would probably be a smart move on her part. Even when she agrees at the end of the scene, we still see her not so fond of Richard: "'Tis more than you deserve,/But since you teach me how to flatter you,/Imagine I have said 'farewell' already"(1.2.242). This last part can be interpret very differently to people, especially when you see it acted out. I see it as a more mocking tone to it, and she just wants to see him go now. Although Lady Anne may seem like a helpless damsel, I believe she is much more than that, and is actually a smart independent woman.
Richard has never been quite the ladies’ man as we know but in this scene of the play it truly seems as though Lady Anne was won over by Richard. But was she really ever seduced by Richards’ sweet talk? In the beginning of this well-known speech Anne sounds as if she despises Richard and says, “…thou unfit for any place but hell” (1.2.116). But further on into the scene Richards charm and persuasion gets the best of Anne when she says, “’Tis more than you deserve; / But since you teach me how to flatter you, / Imagine I have said ‘farewell’ already” (1.2.242-244). Giving us the impression that Lady Anne is under the influence of Richards’ sinister yet charming “black magic”. Knowing that she needs a husband to remain in her high political position and needs someone who will take care of her after her husbands death, Lady Anne agrees to marry Richard, not out of love but out of pure indigence and destitution.
ReplyDeleteRichard on the other hand is using Anne the same as she is using him. They are both craving power and will do anything to climb to the top either again or for the first time. He knows that he will not need Lady Anne once he is king so he plans to, “…have her, but [he] will not keep her long” (1.2.249). This quotation shows that Richard has no true feelings for Lady Anne even if it is perceived that he does. He plans on indulging himself of her social status and then to simply rid of her. Overall both Richard and Lady Anne seem to be using each other for one reason or another and neither of those reasons being true love. Never was either man or woman won.
Lady Anne’s seduction by Richard is at once similar and different to the rest of his manipulations in the play, wherefore most of the manipulations Richard performs are completed with promises of riches or a title Richard holds little power at this point and uses the emotions of her own body against Lady Anne. Anne is originally extremely angry at Richard she curses him vehemently for his deeds against her family. Skillfully Richard maneuvers her into a position where she could kill him with the supposed knowledge that no woman of Shakespeare’s time would have the heart to strike him down. Weather this is the truth or simply Shakespeare’s portrayal of the truth Anne does not strike him down as a deed so blunt as killing richard with his own swords breaks her trance of rage. Startled by her previous rage Anne is instantly thrown off balance forgetting everything but the test of wills between the two. Then Richard pounces offering his hand in marriage or his head in death. At this point it is unclear whether Anne see’s the dangers of refusing or the benefits of accepting or is simply enthralled by Richard’s audacity. In a turn shocking to the audience she seems to have fallen for richard “with all my heart…”(1.2.238). Richard is seems wooed Anne by turning the heart she bore to stone which he then shattered and reassembled into one he could manipulate to help his rise only to be discarded later.
ReplyDeleteLady Anne appears in Richard III as a way for Richard to gain some social standing and to look more credible in the eyes of the remaining Lancaster allies. Even from the very beginning of the play, it is made apparent that Richard is extremely unattractive because he is, "Cheated of feature by dissembling nature, / Deformed, unfinished, sent before [his] time / Into this breathing world scarce half made up" (1.1.19-21). Due to Richard's deformity, it is unlikely that Lady Anne would fall in love with him over the course of a five minute conversation. It can then be inferred that she possessed an anterior motive for accepting his entreaties. Due to her husbands death, she is unstable economically, and in order to sustain her current lifestyle, it would be important for her to remarry. Richard is openly attracted to her and would be a viable suitor due to his social status and wealth. She would also be wary to marry someone of such high status as her previous husband due to his unfortunate condition and Richard, being fourth or fifth in line for the throne depending on the inclusion of Clarence's son, seems like a safe option. While these factors did play a key role in her decision, Richard's flirtations did play a significant part in her final decision. For a brief time after their meeting until their wedding, Anne was in love with him later noting, "Within so small a time my woman's heart / Grossly grew captive to his honey words" (4.1.83-4). Lady Anne was undeniably in love with Richard, and too late realized how fatal her love would be.
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