Richard III: Oh No He Didn't

Wow! Richard is so evil! His “monster” resume is unreal. How does he feel about killing family members – no problem, killing children – no problem, trying to woo the woman whose husband you murdered over the dead body of her father-in-law who, of course, you also murdered – you guessed it, that’s no problem!

The thing about Richard though is that he’s not simply a masked horror movie killer, he is more complicated than that. He has a charm about him, a presence. In fact many of his misdeeds are actually accomplished through manipulation. He can convince others to kill for him, can turn brother against brother, he can somehow convince people they can trust him despite the fact that just about everybody connected to him winds up dead, and yes, he can even get the girl whose husband and father-in-law he killed to marry him. I’ll give you one guess what happens to her later on.

Long story short, Richard proves to be every bit the memorable villain that I had heard him to be.

And there is so much that comes to a head in Richard III. Having followed the whole story which led up to this, I’m not surprised to find the conclusion so satisfying. Chronologically, Richard III is the last play of an eight-part story arc. I think that arc, (with its differing chronology and publication) to be pretty interesting in its own right, so I’ll save that for another post.

There is one more item I definitely wanted to mention about Richard III, that being that Act 5 Scene 3 is easily one of my favorite scenes in any play I’ve read so far. At this point, Richard has been going around killing anybody he felt like for a play and a half, and now on the eve of the big final battle between Richard’s army and the late-arriving hero Richmond’s army, all of those victims come for their revenge. As he sleeps, nearly every victim appears to Richard and commands that his guilt weigh heavily on his heart in the coming battle, and a number of victims end their speech with the passionate and powerful line “Despair and die!” How incredible is that?! The ghosts then turn one at a time to Richmond, also camped out and asleep on the opposite side of the stage, and reassure him saying that the spirits will be fighting alongside him tomorrow. What an amazing scene! It comes to life so vividly on the page that I have to believe that it was larger than life on the stage.

Good one, Shakespeare! Take that, Richard III!