Richard III
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This is a study of "guilt after or before evil deeds" in Richard III. Shakespeare creates five distinct ways of relating to this basic question of conscience in the presence of evil. First, in public, Richard the King displays a strong conscience, but in private he shows no conscience whatsoever. Second, the Second Murderer, Edward IV, Dighton, and Forrest express a strong sense of conscience prior in the presence of evil deeds. Third, Clarence, Rivers, Grey, Vaughan, Hastings, and Buckingham commit evil deeds in spite of conscience and are moved to express remorse only when they are caught and judged. Fourth, Queen Margaret, Queen Elizabeth, the Duchess of York, and Queen Anne keep the question of conscience and justice before everyone through their curses and accusations. Finally, Henry Tudor rids the kingdom of moral uncertainty and restores justice to its rightful place. Richard III is the final play in a tetralogy which begins with the three Henry VI plays. Although the play opens with the kingdom at peace, Yorkists and Lancastrians have fought each other so passionately, both on and off the battlefield, that all the principal characters in the play remain morally tainted by some evil deed committed during the war. Guilt arises from the awareness of moral responsibility for evil deeds. Richard III can be seen as a succession of evil acts and moral judgments on the offenders. To be evil, a deed must be morally wrong. The characters define themselves by the manner in wh
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moral strictures of divine law.
First Murderer. "What, are thou afraid?" Second Murderer. "Not to kill him, having a warrant for it; but to be damned for killing him, from which no warrant can defend us" (1.4.111 114).
Every one of the main characters in the play is caught at some point in this dilemma created by the fundamental difference between human law, which is on their side, and divine law, which is against them. In a parallel to Richard's method of operation, the First Murderer uses the Second Murderer to help him in the murder, but, when Clarence is killed, the Second Murderer, filled with remorse, disavows everything and runs away: "For I repent me that the duke is slain" (1.3.285).
The First Murderer and the Second Murderer play out in this scene an opposition of moral types which is repeated later in the play, one man determined to act, the other troubled and finally stricken by conscience and moral principles. The Second Murderer's "preoccupation with conscience" (Cutts 130) foreshadows Edward's conscience stricken response to the news of Clarence's death.
Edward IV learns of Clarence's death from his brother Richard, and he is overwhelmed by guilt and remorse. Although he had signed an order for Clarence's
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2396
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)
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