Rhetorical Analysis Of Richard IIi 's ' Black Legend '

Both William Shakespeare’s play “Richard III” and Al Pacino’s docudrama “Looking for Richard” explore the timeless themes of Richards’s pursuit of power and the impacts of his villainous and evil nature. Shakespeare’s Elizabethan context is far different from the humanist and secular context of Pacino. Shakespeare highlights the importance of the church and the divine right to rule of monarchs within Richards’s pursuit of power and downfall; this is not relevant within Pacino’s contemporary times. Hence Pacino employs this key theme to reframe the play's focus from divine rule to political power whilst still exploring Richards’s achievement of this power. Through his portrayal of King Richard, Shakespeare creates a character meant to be hated by his audience who were familiar with the Tudor myth.

Rhetoric refers to the study of the ways speakers and writers utilizes words in influencing the audience. Therefore, a rhetorical analysis refers to the essay where a non-fiction work is broken down into parts and it is used in the creation of a specific effect. A rhetorical analysis must assess the goals of the rhetorician, the tools used and the effectiveness of those tools. In writing a rhetorical analysis, one does not argue on the tools used but instead discusses the ways the rhetorician makes an argument and whether he or she uses a successful approach. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a fiction novel for children which was written by C.S. Lewis and was published by Geoffrey Bles in 1950. It is regarded as one of the renowned and first published novels of The Chronicles of Narnia and it is held in libraries. Most parts of the novel are set in Narnia, which is believed to be a land with talking animals and mythical creatures ruling into the deep winter. This paper seeks to compare the novel and movie adaptation of the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Richard, the main character of the Shakespeare’s play, Richard III is portrayed as socially destructive and politically over-ambitious. His destructive potential is depicted by the way he relates with the other protagonists in the play and also by what he confesses as his intentions.

Shakespeare’s plays were grouped into three categories: comedies, tragedies and histories. The histories were those plays based on the lives of English kings. Shakespeare was one of the first writers to write about English history. According to Garber, “before Shakespeare’s time there were few history plays such written in England--- England history was told in verse and prose chronicles (239)”. It’s considered that Richard II is one of the early “historical plays”. The play became so iconic that even Queen Elizabeth said that she was “Richard the second, know ye not that”. Richard II tells the story about a king’s downfall.

There is no doubt that Shakespeare was the author of great pieces of literature during an interesting time period. Given the circumstances, he was indeed mastering his craft during a very tumultuous juncture in British history. When one reads Richard III, they don’t necessarily have to know a great deal about the War of Roses to understand that there is some serious strife going on. However, if the reader takes some time to understand this fascinating string of events, the story of Richard and his fall becomes much more interesting. In all of his brilliance, Shakespeare manages to toy with the idea of humor in this very morose play. As a matter of fact, he does this in many, if not all of his tragedies.

Shakespeare’s Richard III, is filled with desires and determination to achieve and fulfill ambition. Shakespeare uses the power of language to explicate Richard’s manipulative ways to fulfill his desires of becoming king, thus doing so by bringing darkness to the content world of others. According to Anderson’s article The Death of a Mind: Study of Shakespeare’s Richard III Richard’s state of mind is oriented around imposing “dark shadows over the positive dispositions of the others’ lives” (Anderson 701); he works at spreading destruction and grievance to those around him. Throughout the play Richard is in his own state of mind, with his main focus on the crown. Act I scene ii, illustrates Richard’s power and manipulative ways through language in order to gain advantage and gain a step forward in achieving the crown. The dialogue between Richard and Lady Anne at King Henry’s funeral exemplifies his manipulation when he uses charming and charismatic words to obtain her attention. Throughout this essay I will agree with Anderson’s point that Richard’s manipulative ploy is a means of fulfilling his ambition. This essay will explicate how Richard manipulates and uses the power of language to exemplify what his deranged state of mind can do to unsuspecting and naive minds. Lady Anne, her character at the beginning of the scene is distressed and angered, however as the scene progresses, Richard’s dialogue with Lady Anne begins to illustrate her naive mind and weak character

It is not terribly odd to see directors adapt Shakespearian plays to a different era. In fact, contemporary elements in films like Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet and the most recent Much Ado About Nothing by Joss Whedon have definitely bring valuable new readings to the text. Embracing this trend, Richard III (1995) by Richard Loncraine shifts its background to 1930s Britain. Starring Ian McKellen as Richard, the movie makes an undeniable connection to Nazi Germany; very details include costume design, set and prop, and cinematography choices all closely relate Richard to Hitler, an equivalent villain from modern history. The choice of blending Hitler into Richard puts viewers now into the shoes of audience from Shakespeare’s time to

A deeper understanding of ambition and identity emerges from pursuing the connections between King Richard III and Looking for Richard.

* Shakespeare shows the journey in Richard III of Richard himself on his dark quest to becoming king by both using his literary skills and performance to attain what he wants, ultimately being power.

Shakespeare used the physical deformities and the gray areas of history to create one of the most well known villains of all time. Shakespeare’s play, Richard III, is the leading voice in the Richard III story. He is portrayed as an ugly villain, an image that is fueling the way people think, talk and reference Richard III. In reality he differed as a person, but many mysteries remain unsolved. The murder of the princes in the tower at the hand of Richard III is still undecided. In more recent terms we are able to see what he actually looked like and if his physical appearance played the role it did in real life. Richard III is an unloved king by many people even though we base most of our assumptions on a play.

land in the north of England after both the Earl and Anne died. He was

The Contribution of the Supernatural to Richard III During the Renaissance period people were very superstitious and England on a whole was an extremely religious country; people believed in both God and the Devil and Heaven and Hell. They also believed in prophecies, supernatural and curses. A modern audience would have reacted very differently to the play than a Shakespearean audience. The events contained within Richard III must have seemed very real to a Shakespearean audience as it depicts the historical events of the rise and fall of Richard III. For a Shakespearean audience these events happened only a century earlier.

Shakespeare adapts these tenants to construct a power thirsty character. Consequently, while the London elite was introduced to these ideals, Shakespeare shaped the overall plot of the play to exemplify the discussed the power quest introduced by Machiavelli. This results in Richard’s actions that lead him to kill his brother and manipulate his family into getting the throne.

however it was not and he had to face him in battle. "My lord he doth

He was born in Bordeaux France on January 6, 1367. He was the son of Edward the Black Prince and the grandson of King Edward III. Richard succeeded to his grandfather's throne on June 22, 1377, at the young age of ten. Due to his young age the government continued to be run by nobles of the kingdom, in the same fashion it had been in the last years of his grandfather's reign. These nobles were dominated by his Uncle John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster.