Role of Women in Shakespeares Richard III
Woman in Richard III For three centuries, Shakespeare’s Machiavellian character, Richard of Gloucester, has thrilled audiences in productions of Richard III. With the modern obsession and demand for violence, producers have been delighted to bring the villain of Richard back to life, but with increased focus on murderous plots that delight bloodthirsty audiences. Such productions as Richard Loncraine’s Richard III have gone as far as to cut out whole scenes and characters of the mourning women Queen Elizabeth, Queen Margarett, Dutchess of York, and Lady Anne to make more time for murder and war scenes. Yet in curtailing the part of women in the play, the rise and fall Richard in modern productions such as Loncraine’s becomes less dramatic as audiences lose connection to the suffering nation that Richard has plagued with mayhem. Machiavellian characters such as Hitler, Stalin and Richard fascinate historians and audiences by offering them ambivalent feelings; people awe at the power these single individuals acquire, yet waver over society’s necessary values of order and stability. With these conflicting feelings that dance between society and individual levels, Shakespeare takes us on an emotional roller coaster during which we delight in seeing Richard accede to power, but soon enjoy his ultimate destruction by the nation’s hero and symbol of order, Richmond. In the beginning of the play, the audience watch Richard’s seduction of Lady Anne as the first act of a string of heinous ploys. By beginning the play with a scene of sexual seduction, Shakespeare targets the individual’s thirst for power by presenting Richard with a sexual persuasion that no male in the audience can deny craving. Richard’s physique of a “lump of foul deformity (Act 1, Scene 2)” makes his wooing of Lady Anne even more dramatic and awe-inspiring to the audience. ... Even Richard is awed by his ability to woo a woman whose previous husband Richard “stabbed in (his) angry mood at Tewkesbury…(and) will she yet abase her eyes on (Richard), that cropped the golden prime of this sweet prince and made her widow to a woeful bed (1.