In Richard III various characters claim and discuss various rights and privileges that they do or should possess. Queen Margaret, the widow of Henry VI, tells the current queen,"
This sorrow that I have by rights is yours, / And all the pleasures you usurp are mind"(1.3.178-9). Richard complains (before becoming king) that
. . . The world is grown so bad
That wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch.
Since every Jack became a gentleman,
There's many a gentle person made a Jack (1.3.71-4).
Each of these characters asserts a world in which each possesses a right to rule. Yet, the various characters who profess and utilize these rights and privilege acquire them through treachery, deceit and often murder. Consider how Edward the current king, obtained the throne. His brother Richard, acting on his behalf, murdered the previous king and his son. His other brother, Clarence, is also implicated in the death of Edward, despite taking a vow to defend the king and his family. What is this play saying about political power? How is it related to justice or morality? Does might make right?
In modern times, there are many different ways to achieve power, such as through money, politics, or innovation. However, in the time of Shakespeare, political power was the only way to have any amount of legitimate influence. Thus it was everyone’s goal to become of higher and higher nobility, and eventually become king. Because there was only this single method of becoming powerful, most characters in Richard III were willing to use any means necessary to achieve this goal. Most of the characters are operating under an ends justify means mindset, and only care about the means in regard to what people think the means are.
ReplyDeleteOne example of this is when Richard woes Anne. Throughout that entire scene, Richard is showering Anne with compliments and expresses his love to her. However, as soon as she leaves his presence, Richard says, “I’ll have her, but I will not keep her long./ What, I that killed her husband and his father…” (1.2.249-50). Richard did not woe her because he loved her, he did so because in that moment he needed her to further his political power. The key is that Anne thinks he is marrying her out of is sheer love for her. Richard is only trying to keep up appearances while behind the scenes he is killing anyone in his path to become king.
Buckingham is guilty of this as well. While arguing with the Cardinal about taking the boy to the Tower of London, the Cardinal insists that the boy has sanctuary. Buckingham then says, “You break no privilege nor charter there./ Oft have I heard of sanctuary men,/ But sanctuary children, never till now,” (3.1.55-57). Here, Buckingham is breaking well accepted religious tradition so that Richard can gain more political power. This act shows that because of the importance of political power, people are willing to put aside morals, and even religious traditions. Openly, those who have political will claim that it is rightfully theirs, even when the means they used to get it was not necessarily right or moral.
Much of Richard III is about shifts in political power. This play shows the hypocrisy and corruption that the lust for power, specifically political power, causes. In this play, characters who are thought to be virtuous were twisted by the desire for political power. One example of this is Clarence, who seems like a good person until you learn that he helped kill Edward after he had sworn allegiance to him. Not only did he commit a murder, he was a traitor all because of his brothers desire for political power. Political power makes people ignore their conscience. An example of this is Richard. He lies and murders all for his lust for power and the throne. He is aware of moral wrongness of his acts but he does not care., Political power is also shown to cause hypocrisy. One example of this is Richard as mentioned in the prompt above, but anther one is how Lord Dorset and Lord Rivers talk to Queen Margaret in 1.3.262-70. The two lords tell Margaret to stop her cursing and to know her place. She responds by telling them, that they are the ones who are out of place. They should be subjects to her, the rightful queen, she should not be serving them. The two lords dismiss this, saying she is a lunatic. The hypocrisy is that they tell her that she is out of line for cursing them when in reality they are the ones who are far beyond their rightful station. All these examples from Richard III show that the owns with the power decide what is right and it does not matter how hypocritical or morally wrong their decisions might be.
ReplyDeleteIn Richard III, most argue that there are no “likeable” characters, except maybe Richmond and the second murderer. The reason for the lack or “good guys” in this play is because everyone claims rights and privileges that they don’t have, and using that to try and gain sympathy or power. Take Queen Margaret for example. One would think that when a character has her husband and child killed in a war over the crown, and then is left with no power that the audience would have some sort of sympathy with this character, but in Richard III, Queen Margaret is viewed as almost an annoying old Queen who thinks she still has power. She claim in Act 1 Scene 3 that the pleasures that Queen Elizabeth has belongs to her, and the sorrow that Margaret has is supposed to be on Elizabeth. Margaret just assumes that she has the right to be happy, and that her enemies have the right to suffer. Another person who exemplifies this movement is Richard. He claims that every faction that has gained power has done it illegitimately. He says that Queen Elizabeth should just be a mere peasant, that Clarence should die because his name starts with G, that young prince Edward and the Duke of York are illegitimate children, and then he gets the crown. He thinks that these people are doings things in an unfair way, yet he is just killing everyone in his way of the crown. Whether Shakespeare is saying that this backward way of dealing with problems is just about politics, or if this is a play about morality and how the world is bad, except for the second murderer of course, is unknown, but what we do know is that almost every character in this play is a villain and is immoral, and the only thing we can do is learn from them.
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