Richard’s opening speech endeared him to me even though in it he warns the audience that he probably won’t be likeable very long since he has sinister plans. I find him to be so relatable even today since there are many characters like this in movies on tv and in real life- people who feel cheated because of the way that they happened to be born, referring to his deformity.

I liked the lines “He capers nimbly in a lady’s chamber, to the lascivious pleasing of a lute” which made me think of Safety Dance by Men Without Hats : “if they don’t dance well they’re no friends of mine…you can act real rude and totally removed and I can act like an imbecile.” I see Richard as feeling left out of all the fun and then deciding that those people having fun are prancing perverts, and so they must be punished. But he feels this way because he is deformed, ugly. And don’t most of our modern villains tend to be hideous? Richard seems to strive for power to overcome the burden of his hunchback, as power and money are great equalizers. Do we not see wealthy, aesthetically unpleasing men with beautiful wives in our world?

I think it also goes with this idea that our society has that beautiful people are trustworthy and more deserving of certain  benefits.

I know that later in the play we find out that Richard does not really think his deformity hinders him from acquiring a lover, but at the this point in the play, if we take his speech at face value, it contains an interesting social commentary.