Richard III - Richard Themes

Question 1

Manipulative skill, talent for dissimulation

Answer 1

• melodramatic tone
• shifts in tone - creates humour
• C’s children, Boy has faith in R - ironic?
• teasing with York (jumps on his back) and asks for his dagger, could be ironic
• vehement denial of crown in 3.7, contrast to true ambitions

Question 2

Audacious

Answer 2

• praises murderers - moment with millstones, dismissal of conscience
• flattery of Anne
• pious persona, denial of manner and deceit (E), cuts Margaret’s curse

Question 3

Performance, pious persona

Question 4

Doomed all long, DJ

Answer 4

• C’s dream, earthly pleasures are meaningless
• M’s curses (conscience will plague him)
• Rivers, Grey, Vaughn, Hastings and Bham all realise how M’s curses come to fruition

Question 5

Power diminishing, loss of control

Answer 5

• defections
• increasing mentions of RM
• victim of DI, less scheming
• must marry E’s daughter else ‘kingdom stands on brittle glass’
• decreased soliloquies, or cut off by others, no longer framing audience’s view
• Bham leaves
• death of princes