Michael Kluge
ENG ID-04
Ms. Onyeaju
April 9, 2018
Richard III Essay
Shakespeare’s play, Richard III, was written in the time of the war of the roses. The play tells the story of Richard, who is brought to his downfall by a fault in his character. Richard tragic flaw is that has no self esteem, and is not happy, and does not like to be around others who are happy. Richard has a deformed body from birth and he does not feel good about himself because of this. He is jealous of his brothers, his nephews, and others in the kingdom, and can not enjoy this peaceful time in the Kingdom with his brother as King. Richard is also driven for power and will kill anyone who in his way of the throne. However, even when Richard gets the throne and becomes King, after all of his manipulations and killings of his brothers and nephews, and others, he is still not happy. He thought he would be happy once he acquired the power and status of being King, but he is not. He is even more disliked by those around him. So Richard’s tragic flaw is his unhappiness and his low self-esteem and this is what inevitably causes his downfall and and his death in the end.
Richard’s tragic flaw stems from him not liking himself. He is depressed about his deformed body and that lowers his self esteem. We learn this when he hear Richard say, in his opening soliloquy: “To strut before a wanton ambling nymph/ Have no delight to pass away the time/ Unless to see my shadow in the sun/ And descant on mine own deformity/ And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover/ To entertain these fair well-spoken days/ I am determinèd to prove a villain/ And hate the idle pleasures of these days” (1.1. 16-20). This quote says that Richard is not happy with himself and since he can’t get a lover he is determined to become a villain to make him feel better. Later in the play, there is more evidence of Richard’s low self-esteem and not liking or being happy with himself. Richard has bad dreams the night before the big battle. Richard was dreaming that everyone he killed was cursing him and telling him he would be put to his death the next day “Despair, and die!” (5.3. 144) Richard wakes up scared and feeling even worse about himself. “All several sins, all used in each degree,/ Throng to the bar, crying all, “Guilty! guilty!”/ I shall despair. There is no creature loves me,/ And if I die no soul will pity me./ And wherefore should they, since that I myself/ Find in myself no pity to myself?/ Methought the souls of all that I had murdered/ Came to my tent, and everyone did threat/ Tomorrow’s vengeance on the head of Richard.” (5.3. 210-218). Here Richard has woken from his dream and he reflects on what a horrible person he is and that even he does not pity himself, if he dies. He has woken up scared and and he feels even worse about himself as he is about to go into battle.
Richard’s low self-esteem also makes him a very jealous person. He is jealous of his brother King Edward IV and his nephews, because of their power, and also his brother Clarence, because he would be next in line to be King. He plots to kill Clarence, and makes it seem like their brother, King Edward IV is doing this. “Go tread the path that thou shalt ne’er return./ Simple, plain Clarence, I do love thee so/ That I will shortly send thy soul to heaven,/ If heaven will take the present at our hands./ But who comes here? The new-delivered Hastings?” (1.1. 118-122) And with King Edward IV dying from a sickness, Richard becomes a manipulator and tells Edward, just before he dies, that their brother George, Duke of Clarence, was plotting against him. This is very villainous of Richard, because actually it is Richard who plotting over both Edward and Clarence trying to become King. Richard is trying to get his brothers to trust him, and believe that their other brother is the one who is going to betray him. Richard is not only very jealous of his brothers, but also of Edward’s wife,lady Anne. No one wants to marry Richard because of his looks. And after Richard kills Edward he plans to manipulates Anne to marry him. “He cannot live, I hope, and must not die/ Till George be packed with post-horse up to heaven./ I’ll in to urge his hatred more to Clarence/ With lies well steeled with weighty arguments,/ And, if I fail not in my deep intent,/ Clarence hath not another day to live;/ Which done, God take King Edward to His mercy,/ And leave the world for me to bustle in./ For then I’ll marry Warwick’s youngest daughter./ What though I killed her husband and her father?/ The readiest way to make the wench amends/ Is to become her husband and her father;/ The which will I, not all so much for love/ As for another secret close intent/ By marrying her which I must reach unto./ But yet I run before my horse to market./ Clarence still breathes; Edward still lives and reigns./ When they are gone, then must I count my gains.” (1.1. 146-163).
Richard is a very strong manipulator which can be seen as a sign of his jealousy, insecurity and unhappiness. He says: “And thus I clothe my naked villainy/ With odd old ends stol’n out of holy writ/ And seem a saint, when most I play the devil.” (1.3) In this quote we see how he plans to cover or hide his villainy, so people think he is a good person. He wants other to see him as an angel, but says really he will be like a devil. We see this when Richard is running for King, he plans a scheme with Buckingham where Richard has Buckingham manipulate the crowd. Buckingham tells everyone that Richard does not want to be King, but that he will if he has to. He also tells the crowd that Richard is nothing like his brother. “Ah, ha, my lord, this prince is not an Edward!/ He is not lolling on a lewd love bed/ But on his knees at meditation/ Not dallying with a brace of courtesans,/ But meditating with two deep divines/ Not sleeping, to engross his idle body/ But praying to enrich his watchful soul/ Happy were England would this virtuous prince/ Take on his grave the sovereignty thereof/ But sure I fear we shall not win him to it. (3.7.70-79). Buckingham tries to convince the crowd that King Edward IV was a terrible King and that all Edward did was relax and “slack off”. As Buckingham is talking Richard is playing humble and saying that he doesn’t want to be King, but Buckingham is saying how Richard would make a great King which was all part of their plan.
Richard also manipulated Lady Anne by tricking her into marrying him. Richard told Anne that it wasn’t his fault for her father and husband’s death. He blamed the executors. “I know so. But, gentle Lady Anne,/ To leave this keen encounter of our wits/ And fall something into a slower method—/ Is not the causer of the timeless deaths/ Of these Plantagenets, Henry and Edward,/ As blameful as the executioner?” (1.2. 119-124). He also tricked her into marrying him by saying “Your beauty was the cause of that effect—/ Your beauty, that did haunt me in my sleep/ To undertake the death of all the world,/’ So I might live one hour in your sweet bosom.” (1.2. 126-129) The quote shows Richard manipulating Lady Anne by saying all these nice things to her to get Lady Anne to marry him.
In Richard III, Richard is his own worst enemy because of his low self-esteem, jealousy and manipulation of others. His not liking himself is his tragic flaw and is what brings him to an early death. Richard’s low self-esteem was connected to his deformity, and made him insecure. His insecurity made him jealous of others and provoked him into a villian. As a villain he manipulated others and tricked them to their deaths. He became King but still was not happy and was haunted by the people he killed. He woke up from his dreams feeling even worse about himself. And this tragic flaw of Richard’s, his low-self-esteem, is what likely caused his downfall and for him to die in battle.
Work Cited
“No Fear Richard III.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2004. Sunday. 8 Apr. 2018.