Richmond's Final Soliloquy

Richmond! A brother, a son, a man, a leader, a king! Richmond is a loyal man. He is righteous and truthful, qualities the previous king, Richard did not possess. England has become sorrowful and mad, over Richard’s reign. It was time for change and for a true ruler to rise to the glorious crown. This is exactly what Richmond was set out for. He had made a goal to stop Richard from causing more carnage upon England through his carcinogenic and murderous ways. It was his goal to unify and bring peace to England. Finally after months he confronted Richard in the field of Bosworth; the battle for England. In Act 5 Scene 5 from King Richard the third a historical play written by William Shakespeare, Richmond has completed his goal of overthrowing

In this scene, Richmond stands in Bosworth field where he delivers this very important final soliloquy of the play. Though Richmond has become the new ruler of England, he still has much more to prove in terms of character development and personality. He is not just a king, but a man with many faces that are yet to be revealed.

The final soliloquy of the play starts of with Richmond showing one important side of his personality which is key to differentiating him from past kings. Long ago, in the Elizabethan era after a major war, the victorious person would have the power to decide what to do with the enemy.Some leaders would choose to exile them from the land, others would sentence them for death, but not Richmond. Richmond has a lot of respect for those he had faced in the battle for England. He respects the various men who lost their lives and those who were severely injured. This can clearly be represented when Richmond say’s “Inter their bodies as become their births.” This line tells us that Richmond would like for those who have died on either side of the battle to be buried with respect and in relation to their social status. The next line further helps hammer in the

“Oh, now let Richmond and Elizabeth, The true succeeders of each royal house, By God’s fair ordinance conjoin together.” By God’s pleasing command, he plans on marrying princess Elizabeth, who is the true successor of the York family. You can see from this line that Richmond is a very pious man, as he only wishes to marry Princess Elizabeth if God agrees. “And let thy heirs, God, if thy will be so, Enrich the time to come with smooth-faced peace, With smiling plenty and fair prosperous days.” These few lines shows us the pious side of Richmond once again, is talking to god directly, therefore using an anaphora. He pleads to God that if Elizabeth and him were to have heirs, to please bring peace,happiness and prosperous days to the land. “Abate the edge of traitors, gracious Lord, That would reduce these bloody days again” Again Richmond uses anaphora as he directly speaks to God and prays that He gets rid of the traitors who mean to cause more suffering to England. A personification is then used to further express the agony that England has gone through. “And make poor England weep in streams of blood.” Now we can see a bit more of a ruthless side to Richmond as now he prays to god that he would rather have the evil people dead than alive; so that they don’t see England prosper. This is a new side of Richmond that we have never seen before, as