ELIT 17

CLASS 10

AGENDARecitationsLecture:

Richard IIIDiscussion:

Richard IIIQuestions and QHQs

RECITATIONS

Now is The winter Of our Discontent

made Glorious

Richard III

THE WOOING SCENE

Richard’s wooing scene is in Act 1, Scene 2 lines 72 to 244. How effective is it? Analyze his arguments and his ability to mask evil under the guise of piety. Name key moments that push his agenda. Why is Lady Anne susceptible to his wooing?

QHQ

Q: What possessed Anne to respond positively to Richard in the wooing scene, and what can we garner about Anne’s personality or values, based on it?

IS R ICHARD A TRICKSTER CHARACTER? WHY? WHICH TRAITS DO YOU SEE IN HIM? ARE THEIR OTHER TRICKSTER CHARACTERS IN

THIS TEXT?

1. Deceitful2. Self-Serving3. Shape Shifter4. Cultural Hero5. Solitary creature 6. Physically, intellectually, or

socially weak creature7. Special tools8. Teacher

DOES THIS DEFINITION RESONATE WITH US IN TERMS OF RICHARD III? HOW?

According to [Paul] Radin, “Trickster is at one and the same time creator and destroyer, giver and negator, he who dupes others and who is always duped himself. . . . He possesses no values, moral or social, is at the mercy of his passions and appetites, yet through his actions all values come into being” (xxiii).

DO WE SEE RICHARD III IN THIS DEFINITION? HOW?

[The trickster] actually is immoral (or at least amoral) and blasphemous and rebellious, and his interest in entering the societal game is not to provide the safety-valve that makes it tolerable, but to question, manipulate, and disrupt its rules. He is the consummate mover of goalposts, constantly redrawing the boundaries of the possible. In fact, the trickster suggests, says Hyde, “a method by which a stranger or underling can enter the game, change its rules, and win a piece of the action (204)” (Hyde qtd. in Lock).

SUMMARY OF SCENES 4, 5,

AND 6?

Let me ask you!

Terrified, Queen Elizabeth seeks refuge for herself and her second son, the young duke of York.

When Richard hears of the queen’s action, he feigns concern for his brother’s children and assumes guardianship. He removes young York from his mother and has him placed in the Tower along with Prince Edward.

He announces that they are under his protection and that they will remain there only until Prince Edward is crowned.

Learning from Sir William Catesbyn that Lord Hastings is a loyal to the young prince, Richard schemes to remove him from the court by summoning him to a meeting ostensibly called to discuss plans for the coronation of the new king.

Although Lord Stanley warns Hastings that ill luck awaits him if he goes to the meeting, the trusting nobleman keeps his appointment with Richard. There, using false evidence, Richard accuses Hastings of treason and orders his immediate execution. Richard and Buckingham pretend to the lord mayor that Hastings was plotting against them; the lord mayor is that the execution is justified.

Richard plots to seize the throne for himself. Buckingham supports Richard, and to that end hints that both the king and his children are illegitimate.

Shocked, a citizens’ committee headed by the lord mayor approaches Richard and begs him to accept the crown. Pretending great reluctance, he initially refuses, but finally accepts, and plans for an immediate coronation are made.

Lady Anne is interrupted during a visit to the Tower with Queen Elizabeth and the old duchess of York and ordered to Westminster to be crowned Richard’s queen. The three women hear with horror that Richard has ascended the throne; they are all the more suspicious of him because they are prevented from seeing the young princes. Fearing the worst, they sorrow among themselves and foresee doom for the nation.

Richard hires Sir James Tyrrel, a discontented nobleman, to smother the children in their sleep. To make his position still more secure, Richard plans to marry Elizabeth of York, his own niece (the daughter of the deceased Edward IV).

Spreading the news that Queen Anne is mortally ill, he has her secretly murdered.

He removes any threat from Clarence’s heirs by imprisoning his son and by arranging a marriage for the daughter that considerably lowers her social status.

Soon after his coronation, Richard tells Buckingham that the princes must be killed. Buckingham balks, so Richard refuses his request to be elevated to the earldom of Hereford.

His precautions, however, can’t stop the threats that are beginning to endanger Richard. In Brittany, Henry Tudor, the earl of Richmond, gathers an army and invades the country. When news of Richmond’s landing at Milford reaches London, Buckingham flees from Richard, whose cruelty and guilt are becoming apparent to even his closest friends and associates..Buckingham joins Richmond’s forces, but shortly afterward Richard captures and executes him

Buckingham

In a tremendous final battle, the armies of Richmond and Richard meet on Bosworth Field. There, on the night before the encounter, all the ghosts of Richard’s victims appear to him in his sleep and prophesy his defeat. They also foretell the earl of Richmond’s victory and success. The predictions hold true.

The next day, Richard, fighting desperately, is slain in battle by Richmond, after crying out the offer of his ill-gotten kingdom for a horse, his own killed under him. The earl mounts the throne and marries Elizabeth of York, thus uniting the houses of York and Lancaster and ending the feud.

Discuss your answers to the homework questions and your QHQs.

IN GROUPS

DRAMATIC IRONY: QUESTION #2

Dramatic irony occurs when the audience understands the real significance of a character’s words or actions but the character or those around him or her do not. Examine these moments of dark comedy and comment on how and why they work in the play. Look at the scene between Richard and Clarence (Act 1 Scene 1) and also in Act 3 scene 2, when Catesby suggest that Richard should be crowned king in lieu of the Prince of Wales.

THE GHOSTS: QUESTION #1

What is the impact of the visits of the ghosts to Richard?

See act 5, Scene 3, lines 124-188.

Toward the end of Richard III, (5.3.124-188) Richard is visited, in a dream, by many of the people who he has killed. Combine two groups to stage the nightmare scene. Each person should assume a character and HURL the

ACTIVITY

Words at Richard, as if they are the only way to get revenge on the man who killed them

YOUNG PRINCE EDWARD, SON TO HARRY THE SIXTH

.

GHOST OF EDWARD, (to Richard) Let me sit heavy on thy soul tomorrow.Think how thou stabbed’st me in my prime of youthAt Tewkesbury. Despair therefore, and die!

HENRY THE SIXTH

GHOST OF HENRY, (to Richard) When I was mortal, my anointed bodyBy thee was punchèd full of deadly holes.Think on the Tower and me. Despair and die!Harry the Sixth bids thee despair and die.

ClarenceGHOST OF CLARENCE, (to Richard)Let me sit heavy in thy soul tomorrow,I, that was washed to death with fulsome wine,Poor Clarence, by thy guile betrayed to death.Tomorrow in the battle think on me,And fall thy edgeless sword. Despair and die!

Rivers, Grey, and VaughanGHOST OF RIVERS, (to Richard) Let me sit heavy in thy soul tomorrow,Rivers, that died at Pomfret. Despair and die!

GHOST OF GREY, (to Richard) Think upon Grey, and let thy soul despair!

GHOST OF VAUGHAN, (to Richard) Think upon Vaughan, and with guilty fearLet fall thy lance. Despair and die!

The Young PrincesGHOSTS OF PRINCES, (to Richard) Dream on thy cousins smothered in the Tower.Let us be lead within thy bosom, Richard,And weigh thee down to ruin, shame, and death.Thy nephews’ souls bid thee despair and die.

HASTINGS

GHOST OF HASTINGS, (to Richard) Bloody and guilty, guiltily awake,And in a bloody battle end thy days.Think on Lord Hastings. Despair and die!

Lady Anne

GHOST OF ANNE, (to Richard) Richard, thy wife, that wretched Anne thy wife,That never slept a quiet hour with thee,Now fills thy sleep with perturbations.Tomorrow, in the battle, think on me,And fall thy edgeless sword. Despair and die!

BuckinghamGHOST OF BUCKINGHAM, (to Richard)The first was I that helped thee to the crown;The last was I that felt thy tyranny.O, in the battle think on Buckingham,And die in terror of thy guiltiness.Dream on, dream on, of bloody deeds and death.Fainting, despair; despairing, yield thy breath.

AMBITION

Ambition is a manifest theme of a play driven by its central character's evil quest for power. For Richard (as for all tyrants), this course is a lonely one. In Act 1, scene 2, Richard tells us that he has "no friends to back my suit at all / But the plain devil and dissembling looks" (235-36). Richard, of course, has allies (Buckingham, Catesby) and hirelings (the murders and Tyrell), and he even takes Lady Anne as a wife. But as events show us and Richard himself is plain to admit, he has no relationship to anyone, his mother included: those who stand alongside him are mere tools that are best done away with after their usefulness is gone. Most stunning of all, Richard's ambition alienates him from his own self. Thus, after being visited by the ghosts of his victims in Act 5, scene iii, Richard awakens in terror and says:

AMBITION: QUESTION #3

What do I fear? myself? there's none else by:Richard loves Richard; that is, I am I.Is there a murderer here? No. Yes, I am:Then fly. What, from myself? Great reason why:Lest I revenge. What, myself upon myself?Alack. I love myself. Wherefore? for any goodThat I myself have done unto myself?O, no! alas, I rather hate myselfFor hateful deeds committed by myself!I am a villain: yet I lie. I am not.(5. 3. 194-203)

Ambition conjoined with an inherently evil nature cause Richard to embrace the role of villain, but he plays the part so fully that he eventually wreaks havoc on himself. Look at Act 5, Scene 3, lines 194-203. What is the purpose of these lines. What do we learn about Richard’s state of mind?

1. Q: Is Richard, as portrayed in the play, an effective villain?

2. What is Lord Stanley’s purpose in the play?

3. Q: Is it fair to criticize Shakespeare for writing (some) female characters who are simply there to deepen the characterizations of the males in the play?

4. Q: What could be the significance of the curiously short Scene 6 in Act 3?

RICHARD III, STARRING IAN MCKELLEN

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXc0-EME0C8

Post #101. Compare a scene in the movie Richard III to the

corresponding scene in Shakespeare’s play. In some cases, there will not be a direct correlation. In that case, you may refer to themes as long as you use textual evidence. How does the director both stay true to Shakespeare and make the film more relevant? Which is more successful? Why?

2. In the end is Richard totally evil or does his portrayal suggest any admirable traits? Use textual evidence to support your point of view.

Watch the movie Richard III, staring Ian McKellen.