“A supernatural revenge in king richard´s play”

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➢ Aura Pamela Cervantes Cervantes
➢ The tragedy of king Richard the third
➢ 4º semester, evening group
➢ Teacher: Ruy Nieves V.
➢ Literatura Moderna
➢ March, 17, 2007

“A SUPERNATURAL REVENGE IN KING RICHARD´S PLAY”

Shakespeare in his play “The tragedy of King Richard the third” shows how the king Richard has control over the people and how Richard IIIwants to become king and does everything in his power to get it by murdering members of his family to do so, for example, the Duke of Clarence, Lord Hastings, Lady Anne, Lord Rivers, the Duke of Buckingham, Henry VI, Prince Edward, Prince Edward V and Prince Richard. But in the last Act contains many supernatural elements such as ghosts of the people Richard III has murdered or got killed, and nowthey come, the ghosts of the murdered family members have come to curse Richard and transform it in a supernatural revenge against him because of his evil acts.
Richard possessed very precocious political and military ability; he won fame for his knightly prowess, and quickly learned how to control the turbulent aristocracy of Poitou and Gascony. Because he started to have malicious thinkings:“Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous, By drunken prophecies, libels, and dreams,To set my brother Clarence and the king In deadly hate the one against the other” (I, 1, 33-35). This kind of thinking help to Richard to make a very good plan, he started to think in death in order to get the throne, so it doesn’t matter if they were his family or his friends, the only thing that matter to him was tohave the power. In the other hand he knew how to win the people’s confidence, he wanted to win the people by being a noble and good man.

He wanted that they believed that he is not only a moral man, but a modest one. “Two props of virtue for a Christian prince, To stay him from the fall o vanity; And see, a book of prayer in his hands-True ornaments to know a holy man”. (III.vii.96-99). Sothat kind of comments were among the people who were around Richard, he felt so great with this comments and even the feeling of being the next king.
He was highly manipulative and persuasive and was constantly manipulating situations so it fitted in with his overall evil puzzle; he wanted to get the English throne, it was his desire, his dream, his everything, so he was a very intelligent man thatmade a plan in order to get what he wants. So brilliantly, he executed his plan. Heartlessly, he executed family, friends, and subjects. Richard did indeed display these characteristics and therefore fulfilled his goal to ascend the throne and also, more importantly to prove a villain. And this was the result of a great evil character.
Then his plans start with the first victim, his brotherClarence, who is already being taken to prison as a result of Richard’s plots. Then his elder brother King Edward IV. So When King Edward dies, Richard, “Duke of Gloucester” decided that he needed a scapegoat, so that if he should fail to execute the next steps in his plan, he will have someone to break his fall. He employed the Duke of Buckingham, a powerful political ally that will finish in hisvictim. The next step in Richard's plan was to eliminate the family of the king's wife, Queen Elizabeth, who naturally would prefer to see her sons, Prince Edward and Richard Duke of York, to ascend the throne. He took advantage of two defenseless children to obtain his ultimate goal. “My other self, my counsel's consistory, My oracle, my prophet! My dear cousin, I, as a child, will go by thydirection. Towards Ludlow then, for we'll not stay behind.” (II, II, 151-154).
Well in all Act II. Scene II. We can see that Richard took advantage of that, and he did very well what he planned. Then His wife Anne died in Richard’s hands so he then arranged to marry Princess Elizabeth, daughter of the former king, Edward IV. And he achieved it.
Through out the play Richard does a lot of acting that...