Richard III Pt. III

Richard III Acts 4 & 5

Amidst Richard's murders of his young nephews and all the misery filling up in England, the young Richmond comes into the plot and brings hope to the characters and to England. Richmond's fight against Richard is admirable and noble, because he is trying to bring good back into England. He succeeds and knows he will succeed when he dreams about the people Richard has murdered, and when they tell him he will be successful. This beginning portrayal of the house of Tudor brings up a question about Shakespeare's motivations for making Richard seem so evil. The Tudor dynasty is the dynasty of Queen Elizabeth I, whom Shakespeare was at least semi-responsible for entertaining. The entertainment would not be the same if the Tudor dynasty was not shown to be pure and good. Shakespeare dramatizes a key turning point in English history. He had to favor the court he was entertaining; of course I don't blame him at all, for the more evil Richard seemed, the more respectable the Tudor dynasty seems. Being a successful playwright, in Shakespeare's time, meant pleasing the current noblemen/noblewoman. However, from the perspective of the real Richard III, his image has now been popularized in a very negative way.