The play Richard III by Shakespeare portrays the life of Richard III who played an important role in the Wars of the Roses. He seized the throne after basically declaring himself protector of his nephews, later pronouncing them dead in the Tower of London and declaring himself king. While there are many portrayals of Richard III that denigrate him as a human being and as a leader, there are more benevolent versions of this ruler than Shakespeare’s which portray him not as a blood-thirsty monarch, but rather an often adequate leader who had to act violently in a violent time. This essay will argue the fact that Richard does shrewdly manipulate Anne in his wooing of her, however, he does it so well psychologically that the real dilemma is not whether Anne should kill him but a battle within Anne herself between her desire for revenge and her natural instincts of morality and charity.
Richard uses psychology to a masterful degree in his wooing of Anne. He shows a great deal of awareness of the psychology of his beloved because he presents her with a dilemma of killing him, but she must be the one who gives the order, “This hand, which for they love did kill thy love,/Shall for they love kill a far truer love,” (Shakespeare, I, ii: 189-190). Richard is well aware of the fact that if he allows the decision for him to be killed in the hands of Anne, she will not be capable of giving the order because of her innate character qualities.
In this way Richard has thrown the ball back in Anne’s court so-to-speak where he knows she does not play as well as him-psychologically. He has put her in the position of making a judgment which he knows her true nature, regardless of her stated aims, will definitely not allow, “Anne hesitates, for the second time she fails to act according to her own earlier words…Richard has appealed to her better nature, to something beyond her outbursts of rage and hatr
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