With few exceptions, the works of Shakespeare have furnished history with the finest villains of all time and continue to fascinate audiences today with their ruthless plots and unprecedented cruelty. From Iago and Don John to Cassius and , the bard’s antagonist’s remain the as some of the most chilling monsters in literary lore. Of these, Richard III is one of the most intimate and, consequently horrifying.
Though he lacks the mysterious aura of Iago, the villain of “Othello,” Richard III brings a closeness to the audience that becomes more and more disturbing as his character progresses in evil to a roaring crescendo, all the while endearing his audience with seductive soliloquies and monologues that impart a sense of camaraderie, despite his overt vileness and ugly appearances. An example of this is Richard’s opening monologue, beginning with the famous line, “Now is the winter of our discontent.” This continues with Richard explaining the roots of his hatred for humanity, claiming that his unappealing looks have left him socially crippled, a lie that Shakespeare made obvious through Richard’s skill at charming and endearing himself to the majority of his foes early in the play. Despite it’s clear untruth, this explanation is enough to foster enough compassion for Richard that when he begins the systematic murder and manipulation of his family, the audience is still on his side in a grisly display of Shakespeare’s psychological brilliance.
This partially stems from the fascinating nature of his schemes, each of them expressing a different facet of Richard’s extensive psyche. An example of this can be found in Richard’s wooing of the Lady Anne, a bitter widow with just enough favorable ties to make her his prospective wife. Thus, in true Richard III fashion, Richard directly confronts Anne at the head of her late husband’s funeral procession, wooing her with poetic language and complements that flourish under her vituperative assault. This scene takes a twisted turn in the fact that Richard was directly responsible for Anne’s husband’s death, a fact that she is well-aware of throughout the confrontation. However, Richard’s persistence, culminating in his baring his chest to her, ordering her to either take his life or his love, softens Anne’s hard heart and wins her over, ending with him famously contemplating, “Was woman ever in this way wooed?” It is scenes like these that foster Richard’s audience appeal, as one can never know what unique wickedness he will exercise next.
Finally despite being charismatic and endearing, Richard’s depravity pervades the play and achieves its desired effect in repeatedly shocking the reader. Out of his host of atrocities, a number of Richard’s acts stand out for their terrifying and unapologetic cruelty. One of the first of these is his ordering of the murder of Clarence, his brother, a man he pledges to help in the play’s first scene, making his subsequent betrayal and murder more bloody than its already fratricidal reality. Though this act, the murder of his wife, and the execution of numerous innocents are appalling, Shakespeare writes the entire play to center around one monstrous act, the murder of the two child princes. This is achieved through the building of tension as even Buckingham, Richard’s brutal assistant, quakes before the thought of killing the beloved and youthful princes whose previous scenes have earned the love of the audience through their own forms of witty and innocent dialogue. The play goes further in creating shock through Richard’s hired killer describing the scene of the grisly act, saying, “Girdling one another within their alabastor innocent arms. Their lips were four red roses on a stalk, which in their summer beauty kiss’d each other. A book of prayers on their pillow lay, which once, almost changed my mind; but O! the devil! We smothered the most replenished sweet work of nature that from the prime creation e’er she framed.
An artist’s impression of the final moments of the famous princes. Their historical fate remains one of Britain’s great mysteries.
From his opening monologue to the final speech to his troops, Richard III constantly reinforces his position as Shakespeare’s most charismatic villain. However, his depth goes further as his cruelty and eccentricities come together to form a villain unlike any other, shockingly mixing depravity and charm with a tasteful dash of the bizarre to forge one of Shakespeare’s most thought-provoking and terrifying characters.
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