Richard III and Macbeth: Ambition, Murder, and Manipulation

Ambition and Guilt in Richard III and Macbeth

In the plays of William Shakespeare, certain themes appear over and over again. In both Richard III and Macbeth, very ambitious men use nefarious means in order to achieve leadership of their countries. Each man is in line for the throne but must deal with others who stand closer to the crown than he does. The title character in each play therefore takes it upon himself to eliminate all who stand between him and ultimate power. It does not matter whether they are family members or friends — anyone who stands in the way is done away with, either through murder or by being framed for murder. What often happens when a person uses bloodshed to get ahead is that the deaths come back to haunt them, often in a physical form. This haunting, whether real or imaginary, always precedes the character's eventual fall and death.

In Richard III, the title character wakes from a dream before he goes to do battle with his enemy Richmond. In the dream, he sees all the ghosts of the people he has either directly murdered or helped destroy through his actions. Upon waking, the king delivers a soliloquy in which he tries to justify his actions to himself and the audience. Throughout the story, Richard has been able to manipulate everyone around him, and those he could not manipulate he had taken care of. However, as the people take up arms against him, Richard becomes aware that he is losing control even though he is the king. He cannot manipulate those around him as he once could, and instead must rely more and more on violence to achieve his ends. In this passage, he vacillates between regretting his actions and calling himself a villain, and declaring himself the rightful king and thus justifying his conduct. He says, "I am a villain: yet I lie, I am not" (V.v.191). Not only does he lose the power to control his fellow countrymen, but this passage makes clear that he has also lost the power to control himself.

Similar to Richard III, the character of Macbeth in the play of the same name is a very ambitious man who commits treachery and murder in order to become king. Macbeth had a partner in his misdeeds: Lady Macbeth, his wife, not only encouraged several of the murders but took part in the killing of King Duncan as well. It is Lady Macbeth who spurred her husband to action against Duncan, and now that Duncan is dead, Macbeth makes clear that he is not strong enough to control his kingdom without her. He says, "Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player / That struts and frets his hour upon the stage" (V.v.24–25). Life is fleeting and terribly short — he knows that his end is coming.

The two stories are similar in that both men commit murders in order to become kings of their respective countries. Both know that their desires are immoral but decide that their ambition is stronger than their understanding of right and wrong. Neither man, however, is strong enough to hold the power of the throne for long after attaining it. For Richard III, there is far too much opposition from the relatives of the men and boys he has killed. In Macbeth's case, he is haunted by the dead as well, but he also loses the source of his strength when his wife goes insane and commits suicide.

Richard III's Manipulation of Women

Richard III is about a man willing to do anything to achieve his goals. He kills family members and friends at will, even two young boys. No one is safe from his murderous ambition. One of the ways Richard obtains power is through the manipulation of the people around him. He goes so far as to pledge love and offer marriage to a woman solely because of the benefit she may bring him, planning to discard her once she is no longer useful. Richard III uses the women in his life as pawns in his intellectual and ambitious plans to acquire and keep the throne of England. First he wins the affections of a woman whose husband he had killed; then, after she is disposed of, he endeavors to marry his niece — the daughter of the queen whose family he has decimated with his greed.

Winning Lady Anne: Flattery and False Affection

After killing her husband, Richard III attempts to win over the widowed Lady Anne and coerce her into marrying him. He uses his charm and his ability to flatter in order to make the woman forget how much harm he has already done her, and she agrees to marry him. Even as Lady Anne stands in her husband's tomb, Richard begins to woo her and quickly succeeds. At first she absolutely detests him because she associates him, quite rightly, with her husband's death. She calls him all manner of deplorable names, and yet all he does is compliment her and deny his involvement in her husband's death. Lady Anne spits at him and says she wishes it were poison. His response is that "Never came poison from so sweet a place" (I.ii.147). He then hands her his sword and begs her to kill him rather than spurn his affections. His words play on her anger at her husband's death, her desire to find someone to blame, her vulnerability, and her longing to be loved and worshipped. She allows herself to be wooed by her enemy because he says all the right things and because he is a very good liar.

Works Cited

Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. The Norton Shakespeare. New York: W.W. Norton, 2008. Print.

Shakespeare, William. Richard III. The Norton Shakespeare. New York: W.W. Norton, 2008. Print.