Richard III
Comments(2) Richard to me is one of those characters who I have little to no sympathy for, but I find him eerily entertaining throughout the play. The play starts out with a monologue by Richard, describing his motivation for the kind of schemes and murders he has planned, but it comes of like an excuse or a disclaimer. He blames his physical deformity for the way people treat him, and for his lack of success with women too, but the fact that he can use his mind to convince lady Ann (of all the women), to marry him at the beginning of the play, shows that he is perfectly capable in talking women into being with him. so his excuse is just a lame ploy to get the sympathy from the audience, he’s not not even trying, because frankly he doesn’t really care, he is evil for the sake of evil. I found it interesting that Shakespeare portrayed Richard III in this way, since the real king was not considered to be this treacherous, despite the fact that there is evidence he killed The Princes in the tower. Despite having no sympathy for Richard, I still find him extremely witty and entertaining, and this mixed in with how cruel and manipulative he is makes for a very dynamic character.
Very good observation! I do agree with you, Richard is a very influential speaker and although he is evil he is entertaining. He is especially entertaining in the fact that everyone seems to think Richard is up to no good but regardless of what their gut tells them, Richard is able to manipulate them into thinking otherwise. I definitely do find it interesting that although Richard had a physical deformity, Shakespeare decided to give him this great power over the majority of the characters through his well-spoken words and manipulation!
I thought Richard was an impressive character–although I hated him immensely. I like your observation about how he was a influential speak and that it is entertaining because he’s like one of those people that talks people up and eventually at the end of the conversation they just don’t even know what happened, they just agree with him and fall for his tricks and power to manipulate. It was especially amusing to me because I have to learn manipulation for my job and it’s all about the choice of words and Richard is very successful with how he is able to speak to characters.