Open Prompt - Essay 1

1983. From a novel or play of literary merit, select an important character who is a villain. Then, in a well-organized essay, analyze the nature of the character's villainy and show how it enhances meaning in the work. Do not merely summarize the plot.

Every time a family sits down to watch a film or drama, there is always a villain who is out to halt the hero in their tracks, striving to make his point of view perfectly clear. Richard, from Shakespeare's Richard III, uses villainy and his popular hobby of murder as both an excuse for his nature and lifestyle, and as a solution to his main objective throughout the drama, becoming king at any cost. Shakespeare's use of detail, imagery and diction help to characterize Richard as a "tainted" man who is foreign to the concepts of love and family, ultimately doing anything he can to complete his quest to power. 

Richard takes the stage speaking of the ascension of England's new king, his brother, the eldest son of Richard the Duke of York. He may be first seen as a harmless man who is deformed speaking about his brother and that "Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this sun of York". While he may seem like a humored man, he quickly turns villainous as he climbs to the Tower where he finds the slain Prince of Whales and his widow, Lady Anne. Richard speaks to the audience, telling them that she is the first part of his plan and that those who follow will be treated the same. Once Richard tells her that he is the one who killed her husband  he begins to confess his "feelings of love" towards her. Now hated by Anne, Richard offers her his own sword to kill him but she doesn't have the heart to kill the man who soon after proposes to marry her. She accepts his marriage proposal and leaves to stage, only to have Richard turn and ask the audience, "was ever a woman of humor woo'd? Was ever woman in this humor won? I'll have her; but I will not keep her long". This quote is one of the first by Richard in which he reveals to the audience that he will kill to get his way and that he intended to be seen as true villain.

As Richard appears at the court led by Queen Margaret, the widow of Richard's brother, she curses all the nobles present and Richard himself, telling them that Richard will be the downfall of them all. Thankfully for Richard, the old woman is not believed and gives Richard only new determination to become king, now that his own brother is dead and the throne is available. As Act III begins, Richard continues to kill on the way to the throne telling the audience "so wise, so young, they say, do never live long". All of these small interjections by Richard show the audience his villainy and continued love of murder as his few trusted men and commoners enter the palace. Richard enters to holding a bible to show them that he is a "good and holy man". His most trusted servant Buckingham, tells Richard that since his brother and the two sons of Clarance are dead he is next in line to be King. Richard acts surprised and turns down the crown but after the commoners  plead with him to take the throne, he accepts and begins his rule with the reluctant Lady Anne. Shortly after being crowned, Richard nephews appear in court which puts a flaw in Richards plan. The two princes are taken to the tower and kept alive longer than any other of Richard victims, but eventually are killed off. 

With Richard's nephews dead and Buckingham having fled to raise arms against him, Richard begins to go mad. The night of Richard's final battle he is visited by the eight ghosts of those he has killed in his dreams who tell him "despair and die". Richard awakes and for the first time feels vulnerable and sees what he's really done. Told by the ghosts that he is the true villain and that in the morning he will be slain by Lord Stanley, Richard seems happy that he as accomplished his goals of becoming king and being a true villain, but begins to have doubts. These doubts severely change the mood of the show and turn it from a show of murder into a the test of Richard conciseness. Arriving at the final battle, Richard faces Lord Stanley as a mad man and as the ghosts told had said, Richard is slain. With Richard dead the villainy of Richard is merely forgotten and everyone vows to start over.

  

Richard III's villainy makes Shakespeare's show what it is. The entirety of the drama focuses on Richard's villainy and the consequences of his actions. The use of Shakepeare's imagery helps readers see Richard as who he is and what he really wants to be, accepted and loved.