AO5

Question 1

AO5: a quote about the nature of Richard’s vengeance?

Answer 1

‘destroying a world he sees as hating him’

~ ANTONY SHER (1985)

Question 2

AO5: ’There isn’t a moment in the play when the Duchess of York doesn’t talk of [Richard] with…

Answer 2

…contempt and hatred.’

~ ANTONY SHER (1985)

Question 3

AO5: a quote stating the cause of Richard’s actions?

Answer 3

’Everything comes from his deformity, his pain.’

~ ANTONY SHER (1985)

Question 4

AO5: ‘To look at Richard should fill you with…

Answer 4

…pity and horror.’

~ ANTONY SHER (1985)

Question 5

AO5: How does ANTONY SHER (1985) describe Richard’s wooing Anne?

Answer 5

’an unlikely conquest’

ANTONY SHER (1985)

Question 6

AO5: ’[Richard] propelled himself about the stage with…

Answer 6

’an unlikely conquest’

~ ANTONY SHER (1985)

Question 7

AO5:

’his poisonous black hum was finally pierced’ ~ Bill Alexander (1984)

Why is it significant that this is how he dies in Alexander’s version of the play?

Answer 7

Richard’s life ended through the destruction of his deformity; this could imply him to have been a deformity himself to the throne and people around him.

Question 8

AO5: a quote about Richard’s potential to be a tragic character?

Answer 8

’Richard can only have a tragic dimension, if you can find the potential for good in him.

~ Adrian, RSC Director

Question 9

AO5: What questions does REBECCA LEMON raise in response to the animal imagery of Richard III being referred to as the ’boar’?

Answer 9

*’does [it] causes us to come to Richard’s defence,

or do we feel he is dehumanised, and therefore easier to hate?’

Question 10

AO5: What question does REBECCA LEMON raise in terms of Richard III being used as propaganda?

Answer 10

*’does the play continue to work as propaganda 500 years [later]

or does the temporal vantage point shift our experience of the play?’*

Question 11

AO5: REBECCA LEMON: her analysis of Richard’s opening lines

(“Now is the winter of our discontent / Made glorious summer by this son of York”)

Answer 11

*’Richard’s pun on sun/son’

summer being followed by autumn/winter: ’subtly suggesting the potential fall of Edward’

Question 12

AO5:
REBECCA LEMON on modern directors adapting the play

Answer 12

’Modern audiences, by contrast, might need help in recalling the Wars of the Roses’

Question 13

AO5: HARRIET WALTER - her statement about Anne’s vulnerability

Answer 13

’She is vulnerable and directionless in her throes of grief.’

~ HARRIET WALTER

Question 14

AO5:
’One false glass’

What does TIFFANY STERN suggest that the Duchess of York is stating by calling Richard this?

Answer 14

Richard ‘perverts the noble image of his father’

Question 15

AO5: What reflection does TIFFANY STERN make on the play’s ’mirroring style’?

Answer 15

reflects uncertainty as to what is… true, and what is wrong’