Analysis Of Shakespeare's ' Richard IIi '

While his heart must be black, Richard must convey the appearance of a humble and gracious ruler.  He will say or do anything to gain and then to keep his crown.  Perhaps the most striking examples of this Jekyl and Hyde farce are his pledges of undying love for two women he plans to have killed, claiming that all the heinous acts he's committed were only for their love.

Shakespeare’s plays are not always easy to define how a particular scene contributes to the overall picture of the play. Looking only at the surface of the gardening scene in act 3, scene 4, the reader merely acquires that the gardeners are speaking about binding the apricots and plucking the weeds at the Duke of York’s palace. However, the gardening essentially represents a metaphor for the rule and management of the kingdom under King Richard II. It becomes important to examine a scene such as this one to gain insight on what Shakespeare wants to convey. In this case, Shakespeare desires to reveal the perspective of the common man and the type of rule King Richard II has over the people of England.

* Lady Anne scene – Richard turns from the monstrous Machiavellian character we see throughout most of the play, into a romantic wooer. He uses rhetorical language such as pathos to connect with her emotions which assists him in essentially ‘capturing’ Lady Anne. The fact that Richard had just killed her husband King Edward, with her still being with his coffin just makes Richard seem even more powerful as he still manages to pull Lady Anne into marrying him. Although in this scene Lady Anne proves to hold the knowledge of language too as there is constant stichomythia between the two characters through most of the scene but the line which best shows this is when Richard says “Bid me kill myself. I will do it.” And

The pursuit of individual recognition in the form of power and authority remains intrinsic in texts despite the change in contexts. This is evident in William Shakespeare’s 16th century play, King Richard III and Al Pacino’s 19th century docu-drama, Looking for Richard. Both texts explore that the pursuit of individual recognition can be initiated by an individual’s flaw in character caused by the corruption of their sense of morality in order to gain power. This is depicted through the malicious and treacherous nature of the central character, Richard in both texts. There are central ideas conveyed in these texts, including the nature of authority, the acquisition of power and the significant impact determinism plays in one’s decisions and actions. However, due to the difference in cultural context, Pacino reshapes these values to make Shakespeare accessible to a modern day audience. As a result, Pacino sequentially follows the plot of King Richard III in order to emphasise the relevance of Shakespeare’s plays in a modern society. Pacino addresses this through an emphasis on film techniques instead of dramatic techniques. Therefore, it is evident that the comparative study of these texts allows the responder to appreciate the connection between contexts and values, allowing the responder to reflect upon their own society’s concerns.

Even though women of the Elizabethan era enjoyed no social, economic or political parity with the men, Shakespeare portrays the women of that time in a completely different light. The female characters of some of William Shakespeare’s plays execute a great deal of subtle forms of influence and authority, they do

In Shakespeare’s plays it is important to understand the historical context of women in the Elizabethan Age and their role. The Shakespearean era consisted of a misogynistic and patriarchal society which contrasted with Queen Elizabeth being the head of the state. Even though the most important person in England was a woman, the common woman was still very limited in her power and in her independence. Women in this era were dependent on men socially, economically and sexually. Married women were not allowed to be in the public without their husbands, they were bound to the domestic area. Women in general were believed to be less rational than men and always needed male protection and guidance. As they were thought to be incapable of caring for themselves, it was the men’s duty to control their sexuality; the father had to guarantee that his daughter marries as a virgin and the husband had to control his wife so she would only bear his children. Economically women were dependent on men because they were not allowed to have their own business or be involved in trade. They were seen as objects of bartering that men traded with and treated as if they were property. Women were believed to be passive objects, this idea of male dominance above women is represented in theology and philosophy and even supported by medical science: “The fact that female sex organs were inside was

He dominates the play in a way that no other Shakespearean character has ever dominated. Richard is simply always addressing the audience. So all of the opinions are basically coming from him. With that being said, you can’t help but to recognize with him. This is what makes King Richard III identifiable as the protagonist as you are simply forced into having to recognizing with him in the play.

In reading Richard II, I had a hard time understanding why gardens were mentioned and what they meant in the story. In looking at other stories that I have read, in years past, I see that they too also used garden terms to describe certain things in a story. Not just a basic garden description but using how a garden grows or how some takes care of garden to describe a how a government is run or how love grows in a story. In the next few paragraphs I chose three different areas in Richard II that a garden or nature was described by Gaunt and what he meant by it as well as other passages in the play where a garden was used to describe something.

It is true that through the eyes of the modern woman, Shakespeare’s portrayal of women can appear misogynistic. Several of his famous plays (The Merchant of Venice, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet), depict the women with a submissive and obedient attitude towards their husbands. However, the exact opposite transpires in King Lear, even though there are many critics like Aleena Bonk for example, who said that the women were portrayed as “biased, misogynistic and (they) leave a bitter taste in the mouth” (Bonk 2). On the contrary, it is remarkable that the women in King Lear live in an extremely patriarchal society and yet they hold the most power throughout the play. It is important to note that the term feminism was not coined until the 19th century,

The excavation of a monster, a murderer, a man, with a spine as maliciously twisted as his conscience, occurred in the shallow depths of a car park in Leicester, England, August, 2012. Another excavation, quite like the first, set the stage of La Boite theatre ablaze. Dan Evans’ chaotic disruption of Shakespeare’s “Richard the III” was a deviation from tradition, presenting an impetuous yet brilliant challenge to history’s “Bard Avon”. He and his cowriter Marcel Dorney wrote a piece that illustrated “Five bodies in a space, wrestling with an idea” (Evans, 2016). They explore; how does a story influence our perspective of history, and the stories we tell ourselves? The 2016, “The tragedy of King Richard lll” effectively uses the elements of drama, in particular, symbolism and contemporary theatre to illustrate its theme of the nature of evil and questioning of the reliability of history in literature. The skills of performance, in particular directing is exploited to add to the tension and create dramatic meaning.

Both plays begin with meta-theatrical aspects that make the audience acutely aware that it is watching a performance. In Richard III, these theatrical aspects come across in the opening soliloquy by King Richard. In this soliloquy, Richard functions like a Chorus by neatly framing the action to come. He sets the scene of the play by describing that the civil war has ended and that peace has been restored under King Edward IV. But he also sets the tone and hints at what is to come:

records show two difference figure of King Richard III who is not just a historical,

The Elizabethan era was one of the worst times in history for women. They were constantly demonized and ordered around like servants just because of their gender, which resulted in rather cruel gender roles being forced upon them. These gender roles can be seen in William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.” from the treatment of the characters Gertrude and Ophelia, because they are constantly being vilified and underestimated, and are seen as tools to help the men of the play achieve their goals. By analysing the treatment of the women in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.”, it is easy to determine that in Elizabethan times, people believed that women were not on the same moral plane as men, making them therefore less accountable for their actions, that they were corruptive, mentally weak, and in need of a man’s control, and that they were possessions of men.

Despite the subjugation of women during the Elizabethan era, Shakespeare's female characters often prevail as revolutionaries in a time of strict patriarchal ideologies. Analyzing A Midsummer Night's Dream with a feminist lens reveals how the