Saturday, September 7, 2013
Spiders and Tigers and Boars -- Oh My!
The enemies of Richard III -- and there are many of them in this play -- often compare him to an animal. Anne, a widow by Richard's hand (and later his wife) taunts him by saying "Never hung poison on a fouler toad"(1.2.161). Queen Margaret, widow of Henry VI who was also killed by Richard, warns her replacement about him: "Why strew'st thou sugar on that bottled spider, / Whose deadly web ensnareth thee about?" (1.3.256-7). Later she warns Buckingham: "O Buckingham, take heed of yonder dog!/Look when he fawns, he bites; and when he bites, / His venom tooth will rankle to the death." (1.3. 308-10). Queen Elizabeth, on hearing that her brother and son have been imprisoned by Gloucester, exclaims, "Ah me! I see the ruin of my house. / The tiger now hath seized the gentle hind"(2.4.54-55). What is going on with all these animal metaphors? Is there a pattern? A deeper significance? Is it telling us something important about Richard's character? Or is there an irony her (since it is the language of his enemies)? What is the purpose of animal imagery?
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Animals imagery in Richard III is primarily used to signify lowly or immoral acts as well as being used to demonstrate extreme hatred or disgust. In the first act when Hastings is released from the tower, he complains to Richard, "More pity that eagles should be mewed, / Whiles kites and buzzards [prey] at liberty" (1.1.136-7). This quotation, essentially meaning why should the great be reprimanded while the lesser people carry on, creates a deeper meaning through the use of its imagery. It clearly shows that he is outraged at the unjust actions taken against him.
ReplyDeleteFollowing Hastings' escape, Richard goes to the mourning Lady Anne in an attempt to win her heart. Lady Anne is already extremely upset and Richards attempts at flirtation are initially vulgar and unbecoming. At this point Lady Anne is furious and spits on Richard, and in her fury calls him a toad. When the man who confessed to murdering her husband and father-in-law comes to proclaim his love, the word that came to her mind was a toad. With a toad being the ultimate insult in her mind, it would be apparent that she doesn't hold animals in such a high regard. When Richard's entreaties fail to cease she is forced to resort to supernatural creatures wishing that her eyes were, "basilisks to strike thee dead" (1.2.164).
This theme further translates to Richard himself. The animal that is associated with Richard is the boar. In Margaret's curse to Richard, she refers to him as, "Thou elvis-marked, abortive, rooting hog" (1.3.299). This comment is used as a personal jab at Richard. Margaret's use of hog had a doubly negative effect in that she degraded Richard by calling him a hog, but also degraded his emblem into a more base version of its noble self. No other characters in the play are associated with animals of their emblem, which did not allow them to be lessened in character. Shakespeare makes it very clear from the begging of the play that animals represent the worst that life can offer. They are not used passively in conversation, but only appear in moments of extreme hatred and contempt.
Richard, as we know, is a malevolent and deceitful character in Shakespeare’s’ Richard III. We also know that Shakespeare is well known for his perpetual use of animal imagery in his plays. When we put these two details together we see that Richard is continually compared to different spine-chilling, confident and vulgar animals such as the bunch-backed toad, a bottled spider, a tiger, dog, boar and many more.
ReplyDeleteIn the beginning of the play it is revealed to the audience that Richard has some sort of deformity; he is a hunchback. This is when the toad imagery comes into play when Queen Margaret says, “The day will come that thou shalt with for me/ To help thee curse this poisonous bunch-backed/toad” (1.3.259-261). In this quote Queen Margaret is referring to Richard as a bunch-backed toad which is referencing to Richards deformity. Also toads are commonly thought of as slimy or as a symbol for transformation. Richard, throughout the play, is transforming into a Machiavellian of some sorts. During the course of the play Richard acquires the persona of a power hungry mad man who will do anything to get what he wants. By showing this side of him early on in the play, he reveals that he is a man who cannot be trusted which could lead an audience to think of him as a lion. Lions are typically thought of as big, ferocious predators that are killing machines just like Richard who is willing to kill anyone that comes in his path. The irony in this animal imagery is revealed when Richard is called an, “abortive rooting hog” (1.3.241). The irony behind this is that the boar is Richards’s heraldic emblem and is thought of as a violent and unsightly animal just like Richard. This confirmed when Lord Stanley, “…dreamt the boar had razéd off his helm” (3.2.11). This quotation shows that Lord Stanley knows that Richard is planning on murdering him.
The main purpose of animal imagery in this play is to give the audience a more descriptive view of the character of Richard and how he resembles certain animals through his immoral and vindictive behavior. It illustrates to the audience how Richard is more like an animal than he is a human.