richard iii - complicity Flashcards
RSC 3.5 peer pressure
Richard, Buckingham and Lovell/Catesby spit every time ‘Mistress Shore’ is mentioned in Act 3 Scene 5 (using her relationship with Hatsings to discredit him); eventually the Mayor spits with them, as if to just join in (peer pressure/intimidation)
‘Had he done so?’ - only line is question
Bitot- asides
‘What though I killed her husband and his father’
‘Was ever woman in this humour wooed?’
- indulges in asides that secure our connivance and create impression that he is both in the world of play and simultaneously outside it as a observer
- facilitates a relationship between the audience and villain that surpasses the fourth wall
harold bloom - ‘intimate’ relationship with the audience - ‘unnervingly confidential terms’
gunby - accomplices of R, suspending our moral judgements in the enjoyment of his villainy
gunby anne + richard
‘this keen encounter of our wits’ - like the witty skirmishes in which lovers indulge in Much Ado About Nothing
- doubly ironic - expressing loathing and yet later ends in successful wooing
- wooing over dead body of father lin law
(even considering the conventional elizabetha view of women’s changeability, this strains credibility)
‘imagine i have said farewell already’
Pimlott’s RICHARD III - anne is power-grabbing manipulator rather than helpless victim
Clemen - ‘to give a thing and to take a thing is to wear the devils golden ring’ vs ‘to take is not to give’ - elizabethan proverb (chosen to collude with the devil)
Olivier production 3.7
B is made to kneel and kiss hand as act of control + smile fades
‘Salute you with this royal title’
- wants to be the duke of hereford
no part in murderous feuding - begins the play with no inheritance of guilt
but becomes victim of retributive process due to own actions and choices - actively engaged in bringing his villainy to fruition
MY OTHER SELF
siemon religion
a compliant cardinal aids richard in violating sanctuary 3.1
‘Not for all this land would I be guilt of so deep a sin’ vs ‘you shall overrule my mind for once’
the bishop of ely hurries to fetch richard strawberries 3.4
‘Marry and will, my lord, with all my heart’
a chaplains conceals the princes bodies 4.3
‘The chaplain of the tower hath buried them’
