Richard III was one of Shakespeare's earliest plays, and possibly aside from Titus Andronicus, one of his most brutal. This violence is contrasted with Shakespeare's use of supernatural elements such as dreams and curses, because these supernatural elements grant certain characters power who would otherwise be powerless in the face of the physical violence upon which Richard and his rise to power depend (even though Richard himself shies away from violence). However, in the 1995 film adaptation of Richard III, these supernatural elements are largely removed due to the fact that the fascist Britain in which the story is set has no room for the supernatural; by definition, under fascism the state itself takes on the status of an ultimate, divine power. hile this is a necessary consequence of the "transposition and cutting of entire scenes" that is required when adapting Shakespeare to film, the change actually manages to reveal…...
mlaWorks Cited
Arnold, Aerol. "The Recapitulation Dream in Richard III and Macbeth." Shakespeare Quarterly
6.1 (1955): 51-62.
Jackson, Russell. "From play-script to screenplay." The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare
on Film. By Jackson, Russell. 1st ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. 15-
This version is different from the first two interpretations in that Al Pacino and his actors needed to break down the barriers, which render Shakespeare's history complicated and intimidating. Al Pacino allows his viewer to go behind the scenes and witness the actual process of acting. The heavier aspects of the play are made mild by informal shots of actors dealing with their roles in either a comic or heated forum. Al Pacino's methods of analysis are insightful, amusing and engrossing. He transcends the barrier between actors and their audience as he stands in London's legendary Globe Theater and the halls of New York City's Cloisters Museum (Richard III Society).
It illustrates how the actors move in and out of character through their struggles, debates and revelations about the play (Richard III Society 1996). At the same time, Al Pacino also acquires and measures public opinion about Richard III through…...
mlaBibliography
1. Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data. (2000). The Tragedy of Richard III by William Shakespeare (c 1591-3). Oxford University Press.
2. Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios. (2006). Richard III. Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios, Inc. http://www.mgm.com/title_title_do-title_star=RICHARD3
3. Moorhen, W.E.A. (2006). Richard III. Society Research Office, Society of Antiquaries. http://www.richardIII.net
4. Richard III Society, American branch. (1996). Looking for Richard by Al Pacino. http://www.r3.org/pacino
Richard III: Shakespeare's Humbert
Literature is filled with characters that are designed to be lovable. For instance, Cordelia from Shakespeare's "King Lear" is the good sister: She cares not about Lear's bequest, but rather only focuses on her love and caring for her father. She is veritably sainted against the deep contrast of her mercenary sisters. Then there is Pnin, Vladimir Nabokov's lovable absent-minded and foreign professor of the novel by that name. Pnin is constantly stymied by the insensitive and impersonal nature of American society and we as readers have no choice but to love him and feel for him.
The Nabokov example is selected because of another -- much more famous -- Nabokovian character, Humbert. A pedophile and accused murderer, Humbert is -- on the surface -- on of the least likable characters in literature, and a definite questionable selection as a protagonist.
However, Nabokov wields his magic and the beauty…...
mlaBibliography
Biography Channel. 2005. Rich List . www.thebiographychannel.co.uk.
Bookrags. 2005. Biography of Richard, III. www.bookrags.com.
Britannia. 2005. Monarchs of England: Richard III. www.britannia.com.
Richard III and Macbeth
In the plays of illiam Shakespeare, certain themes seem to appear over and over again. In both the stories of 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 has to deal with other people who are closer to the crown than he is. So, the title character takes it upon him to eliminate all the people who stand between him and ultimate power. It doesn't matter if they are family members or friends. Anyone who stands in the way is done away with either through murder or by framing the person for murder. hat often happens when a man or woman uses bloodshed to get ahead in the world is that the deaths come back to haunt them, often in a physical form. This haunting, whether real or…...
mlaWorks 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.
This reinvention has continued in every era since, including in the modern film adaptation of Richard the Third starring Ian McKellan. Set just prior to orld ar II and with Richard as a fascist dictator who often appears quasi-Naziish, this film version gives much darker political overtones to Richard's climb and eventual reign than appear in Shakespeare's text. Though this makes the depth of Richard's evil far more profound and influential, it also has the effect of somewhat ruining the original impact of the play (or script) by making the outcome too serious.
There is, of course, no lack of seriousness in the political effects of the play or the grief of the many characters that Richard wrongs on his way to the throne, but it is tempered throughout the script by Richard's sense of his own dastardliness, and his completely self-serving attitude. In the script, he does desire to…...
mlaWorks Cited
Barton, Anne. "The London Scene: The City and the Court." The Cambridge
Companion to Shakespeare. New York: Cambridge University Press 2001.
Evans, G. Blakemore and M. Tobin, eds. The Riverside Shakespeare. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2003.
Grady, Hugh. "Shakespeare Criticism: 1600-1900." The Cambridge
They want to be king so badly that they can justify any action that helps them achieve their goal. These actions include murder. Both men become villains in different ways - Richard seems to have been born villainous and Macbeth seems to prove that villains are not born but made from outside influences. Shakespeare proves both assertions valid when we see Macbeth reach the same level of conniving and ruthlessness as Richard. The dream of power and the intense thirst for ambition lead both men to murder. In addition, both men not only murder but also commit cold-blooded murder to get what they want proving that we are not so different from one another.
orks Cited
Bloom, Harold. Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human. New York: Riverhead Books. 1998.
Bradley, a.C. Shakespearean Tragedy. New York: Fawcett Premier Books. 1991.
Greenblatt, Stephen. ill in the orld. New York .. Norton and Company, Inc. 2004.
Shakespeare,…...
mlaWorks Cited
Bloom, Harold. Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human. New York: Riverhead Books. 1998.
Bradley, a.C. Shakespearean Tragedy. New York: Fawcett Premier Books. 1991.
Greenblatt, Stephen. Will in the World. New York W.W. Norton and Company, Inc. 2004.
Shakespeare, William. I Henry III. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. Vol. I. New York: Nelson Doubleday, Inc. 1853.
Garrick and Kean as Richard III
David Garrick in the eighteenth century and Edmund Kean in the early nineteenth would both make their reputations on performing the title role in Shakespeare's Richard III, but as with the stage history of King Lear in the same time period, they were not performing Shakespeare's text unaltered but in the adaptation of former poet laureate (and Alexander Pope's King of the Dunces) Colley Cibber. Nicoll relates that Garrick became an overnight sensation playing the crook-backed usurper: the morning after his debut, Garrick wrote to his brother "Last Night I play'd Richard ye Third to ye Surprize of Every Body & as I shall make very near 300 pounds p Annum by It & as it is really what I doat upon I am resolv'd to pursue it" (Nicoll 1). Meanwhile Green notes that "Richard III was Kean's most popular role, and he played it…...
SHAKESPEAE'S ICHAD III AND TEY'S ICHAD III
This paper explores the differences between Shakespeare's account of ichard III and Josephine Tey's Account of the same. The paper reasons out the causes of differences.
COMPAISON OF SHAKESPEAE'S ICHAD III AND TEY'S ICHAD III
Shakespeare's descriptions of ichard III have been the most popular historical account.
He describes ichard to be a physically deformed individual with his deformities eating away at his mind and soul turning him into a loathsome character. Moreover, he depicts ichard to be greedy for throne so much so that he went about on a murdering spree. In Shakespeare's account, ichard killed his own brother George whose turn it was in the line of succession within the House of York. Moreover, he had the queen's brothers, ivers and Gray and his wife Anne murdered too with the aid of the conspiratorial Buckingham. But, as depicted by Shakespeare, his most infamous and…...
mlaReferences
Moore, James A (1995). Historicity in Shakespeare's Richard III. Richard III Society. March 5, 2002. http://www.r3.org/bookcase/moore1.html#fn1
Tey, Josephine (1952). The daughter of time. New York, Macmillan, 1952, 204
Shakespearean and Tey's account
Dreams in Shakespeare's Richard III
Whatever view we take of Richard III as depicted in Shakespeare's play, his dominance of the action cannot be doubted. He is the central figure of the story, a demonic force that energizes the plot and constantly makes things happen. The very fact that he begins the play by asserting that all is well in England except with himself, and proceeds on the basis of his own discontent to undermine the content of the nation, demonstrates clearly his own self-centered vision. "I am determined to prove a villain" [act I, scene 1, line 30] is his declaration in his first speech and that is precisely what he does -- not merely "appear" a villain or "be regarded" as a villain, but actively "prove" a villain. Richard, however much he may be a villain to the world, is the hero of his own story, and his actions…...
mlaBibliography
William Shakespeare, Richard III, edited by E.A.J. Honigman (London: Penguin, 1968).
King Richard III and King Henry V
William Shakespeare is one of the brightest play writers throughout ages. His contribution to the world literature is immense and raises a lot of important questions for the mankind. In his plays Henry V and Richard III Shakespeare tried to analyze the historical role of a king, showing him as an ordinary human being one side and a powerful king on the other. It seems that Shakespeare shows the difference between being a man and being a king and how the personality may influence the ways in ruling the country. At the same time he delightfully shows the inner world of the kings with all its virtues and evils, desires and fears and their reflection on the social and political life of their country.
The main characters of the books, as it has been mentioned before are both kings. Richard III and Henry V are…...
They fear Richard because he is a great warrior, I thought. Although Richard tried to deny it, Queen Margaret described how he slew my husband without pity. Indeed, I suppose the good have no place in this world, no place in politics. Henry VI and my husband should have been monks or shepherds, not rulers. But then what of myself? What will happen to me? I wondered this as I tossed and turned at night. I had already seen too clearly how women are treated during times of war and strife.
There is no place for tenderness in this world, I thought, no place where a woman can rest easy -- and then, for the first time in my life, I felt regarded. I felt as if I was not a woman who was a political pawn, but truly seen as a woman. Richard said, to me, Anne:
Your beauty was the…...
Duke of Gloucester
Shakespeare's ichard III, The Duke of Gloucester, may not bear much resemblance to the real king in character and appearance but in this play, he is certainly the most dominant and a fully developed figure that serves as both the protagonist and villain of the play. For critics, it is hard to decide whether ichard III can actually be called a tragedy because here the protagonist appears less a tragic figure and more a vain, cruel and malicious king who was ruthlessly ambitious and killed people not for the love of his country, as most other tragic kings did, but advance his own objectives.
It is widely believed that Shakespeare's ichard III was based on Sir Thomas More's description of the king. Other historians have often described him as a courageous and warm king, a description widely different from the image we get from Shakespeare's play. In this play,…...
mlaREFERENCES
1) Sir Thomas More, The History of King Richard III, ed. By R.S. Sylvester (1963), pp. 7-8
2) Harrison, G.B., ed. Shakespeare: the complete works. New York: Harcourt, 1968
3) Donna J. Oestreich-Hart "Therefore, since I Cannot Prove a Lover." Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900. Volume: 40. Issue: 2. 2000. 241.
Richard III and the Odyssey
The focus of both, Shakespeare's "Richard III" and Homer's "The Odyssey," is the struggle between good and evil. Each work shows the consequences of following temptations and how in the end good triumphs over evil.
Richard is evil personified. Due to his lack of any compassion or humanity there is no other conclusion to draw except that Richard is psychopathic. He is basically a serial killer with a self-promoting plan (Shakespeare 1996). His every intention is to be in complete control at any cost, nothing and no one is going to stand in his way. Although in the beginning Richard might easily be taken as simply a jealous cripple out to take revenge on his older brother, by the end of the play, he has become a monster, the epitome of evil, feeding on power and death in a mad frenzy to obtain his goal (Shakespeare 1996).…...
mlaBibliography
Homer. The Odyssey. Noonday Press. November 1998.
Shakespeare, William. Richard III. Washington Square Press. 1996.
Daughter of Time
"Everybody knows that Richard III, the last of the Plantagenet kings, murdered his two nephews. But everybody could be wrong -- according to Scotland Yard's Inspector Grant, who studies 500-year-old evidence to try to determine who really killed these two heirs to the British throne…"
(Harris, 2001, p. 1).
On the initial page of author Josephine Tey's book, The Daughter of Time, the author (whose real name is Elizabeth MacKintosh and who also uses the name Gordon Daviot) embraces the quote, "Truth is the Daughter of Time." That is an appropriate use of the proverb because much of the discussion of Tey's fictitious historical novel centers on the concepts of truth and perception when it comes to King Richard III.
Summary of the Book
One of Tey's characters that she uses in this novel, and in several of her other books, Alan Grant, is an inspector with Scotland Yard in London. Because…...
mlaWorks Cited
DuBose, Martha Hailey. Women of Mystery: The Lives and Works of Notable Women Crime
Novelists. New York: Macmillan, 2000.
Gale Online Encyclopedia. "Overview: Daughter of Time." Retrieved July 28, 2012, from Literature Resource Center.
Harris, Karen. "The Daughter of Time." Booklist, 97.17. Literature Resource Center, 2001.
Marius notes, "More was not above wrenching a historical tale around to make it prove what he wanted to prove." (pg. 104)
As with any published academic endeavor, Marius has opened himself (or opened himself, since he has been dead since 1999) to inevitable criticism from other (perhaps jealous), scholars with differing opinions.
But ultimately, Marius proved his merit repeatedly. Not only did he continue to further his research and engage interest in More through articles, but he also went on the speaking circuit. All of this validated what he initially wrote in his More biography.
Marius examines other prominent figures and important scholars of the time, including Erasmus and Martin Luther (Marius wrote a biography on latter, too).
If Marius demonstrates any bias, it's the concerted effort he makes to present More as a whole person, flaws and all. He carefully cites incidents, some more documented historically than others, and focuses on…...
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