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King Richard III As A Villain Analysis

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William Shakespeare has created many fascinating characters and the most fascinating being the villains. They comprise of the worst of human vice yet their motives are surprisingly real and easy to relate to with jealousy hatred heartbreak and bitterness. There are a number of villains present in Shakespearean plays like Shylock from The Merchant of Venice, Don John from Much Ado About Nothing, Claudius from Hamlet, Richard iii, Iago from Othello. William Shakespeare’s play The Tragedy of Richard the Third is a masterpiece in the depiction of evil and the study of the psychology of the anti-hero, the villain we love to hate to the point that we almost hope they succeed. Yet we may have been deceived by Shakespeare’s play because he may not have meant us to see King Richard III in it. It is beyond doubt that Richard III is replete with errors of all kinds; factual, chronological and even geographical in its efforts to damn King Richard to its audience; and it succeeds. This is the image of King Richard that has imprinted itself onto our …show more content…

We are forced to examine our attitude to the blatant evil played out before us. We almost like him, and we are supposed to. Elizabeth I liked Robert Cecil, a man she called her ‘little imp’ and Shakespeare was warning that this veil of amiability hid dark schemes that would doom the Crown. Namely, Cecil’s plot to see the Scottish Protestant James Stuart as King of England. Richard is the archetypal anti-hero. In his opening soliloquy he tells us all what he is planning to do, that he is ‘determined to prove a villain’, drawing us in so that we feel like we are his co-conspirators, accessories to what follows since none of us leap up to stop him. Complacency in the face of such deeds will bring ill upon the kingdom, as will allowing Cecil the room to plot a Stuart succession.n a catalogue of sovereigns not exactly renowned for their grace, distinction, or

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Was Richard III Evil? Richard III was a power hungry king in the play of William Shakespeare. During the beginning of the play Richard III represents himself as a self-made criminal; he makes his malicious intention known in every speech to the audience. Richard works his way up to the throne by murdering his rivals. Was Richard III evil?

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