by Dr Ronnie Bai

Created on: June 01, 2010   Last Updated: June 03, 2010

Richard III is an impressive character capable of playing different roles

Shakespeare’s history play Richard III revolves around the character of Richard, whose ability of manipulation and evil-doing intrigues the audience. Richard is not only capable of pure evil but also skilful in changing from role to role, appearing alternatively as a loving brother, a devoted lover, a caring uncle and a devoted Christian. Richard is the archetypal Machiavellian politician, a consummate manipulative liar with his mind bent on usurping the English crown.

Richard possesses the ability of changing from role to role. This is displayed from the start of the play where he acts as a caring brother to Clarence. Here, Richard focuses on two major facts to comfort his brother and gain his trust. Firstly, he indentifies Clarence as an innocent person, through the line ‘Alack, my lord, that fault is none of yours.’ This is also an irony, which strongly contrasts what Richard’s real intentions, creating a humorous atmosphere. He pretends to team up with Clarence, shown through the ironic line ‘we are not safe, Clarence, we are not safe.’ To form an “alliance” with his brother, Richard also mentions the fact that “men are ruled by women”. Richard mockingly refers to Queen Elizabeth as ‘my lady grey’ due to her marriage to King Edward, and before this, she was the widow of ‘Sir Thomas grey. As we can see Richard’s power of manipulation is extraordinary

In order to prepare for the day when he becomes the king, Richard woos Anne to increase the power of his position initially. From the conversation with Anne, we see that Richard uses splendid excuses to avoid the blame for the murder of her father and her husband, making himself a “devoted” lover. Firstly, Richard uses the excuse of killing her husband because he loves her to justify his reason for her husband’s murder, established through the lines ‘he that bereft thee, lady, of thy husband/ did it help thee to a better husband.’ However, this does not work. Then Richard decides to pretend to suicide, offering Ann his sword in a most dramatic fashion. This deeply touches Anne, and she gives in to Richard as she accepts the ring from him. Celebrating the success of wooing Anne, Richard cracks jokes about his own deformity, which he previously believes alienates him from the royal court, saying ‘I’ll be charges for

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