"richard 3" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cliff Notes)

Like all the children in this play, both are precocious. But there are differences between them. Wales appears to have leadership ability and is already somewhat haughty when we first meet him. He goads his Uncle Richard with boyish fantasies of foreign victories. His younger brother, York, seems content in his smart-alecky word play with his uncle. Yet the two boys remain dangerously alone without the protection of their maternal uncles, and their departure for the Tower of London is bittersweet. They are a vital element in maintaining the audience's interest especially through their mother and grandmother's abortive attempt to visit them in the Tower. In Tyrrel's careful description of their final moment, they become a powerful focus of sympathy. Richard III's role in the murder of the princes in the Tower has been at the center of the case against him throughout the centuries. Shakespeare spares nothing but the actual sight of blood in this version of the fate of the two boys whose mysterious disappearance has never been solved. Even today the pro-Richard forces concentrate their campaign to clear his name on absolving him of the murder of the princes.


^^^^^^^^^^RICHARD III: SETTING

Richard III takes place in late 15th-century England just before Richard, Duke of Gloucester, seized control and ascended the throne. It concludes with his death at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485. In all, it embraces events occurring over roughly a fourteen year period. But Shakespeare has greatly condensed and rearranged the sequence of events to create intensity and heighten the drama.

For a play that suggests action taking place across a sweeping landscape, there are remarkably few locations actually created on stage. In fact, the first part of Richard III is set entirely in London, on anonymous streets, in non-specific rooms of the royal palace at Westminster (the present site of the Houses of Parliament), or in the bare outline of a room at the Tower. It is not until the brief scene at Pomfret Castle (III, iii) that the action moves outside the capital. Afterward, it quickly returns to London where it remains until the last act, when the two sides move toward their final encounter.

Here, in Act V, Scene I, the setting is Salisbury, about 70 miles southwest of London, where Buckingham is about to be executed. The next scene takes place in the north, at Richmond's camp of Tamworth, "but one day's march" from Leicester, the city closest to Richard's camp. In the following scene, you are taken to Bosworth Field where the two opponents are mustering their troops and preparing for combat. It is there that the final resolution of the play takes place.

With these few on-stage locations, how does Shakespeare then achieve the suggestion of great panoramic action? First, remember all the offstage action. How many things are we told about, and sometimes re-told, that have just taken place offstage? The imprisonment of Rivers, Grey and Vaughan; Buckingham's rebellion and capture; the murder of the princes in the Tower; Richmond's abortive attempt to land in Dorset--these are just a few events that take place within the play's time frame.

What about past events? How often are they recalled? Listen to all the reminders of past battles, fallen enemies, and the rise and fall of previous powerful rulers. Not only Henry VI, but the Duke of Warwick (Anne's father), Richard of York (Richard III's father), Richard II, all are brought forth from memory and add to the sense of a larger arena.

Shakespeare's audience would have demanded a play with a breadth of action equal in concept to the importance of the story. The playwright has indeed provided that, but with a remarkable economy of settings which do not intrude on the important business on stage.

^^^^^^^^^^RICHARD III: THEMES

Here are major themes you will find in Richard III.

1. NATURAL ORDER

The Elizabethan attitude toward nature, a holdover from medieval times, was as structured and formal as an organizational flow-chart would be today. Nature consisted of a universe in which there was an established hierarchy, with God at the top. Everything below had a specific position and status. The king ruled the state; the father was the head of the family; next came the mother, the children, and so on. At the bottom were the animals; even they had higher and lower rankings. Snakes, insects and vermin were at the very bottom. Remember this when you come upon the animal images used in the curses heaped upon Richard.

When the natural order was upset, the bottom moved toward the top. As a result, chaos set in. The symbol of chaos was the monster. Richard is frequently called a monster and related to "monstrous" acts. When you hear of something being monstrous, it suggests a drastic, unnatural change or upheaval that demands a restoration to the way things are supposed to be. Richard's personal position--low down on the scale of animal life--and his political position at the top, are at odds. His removal from the throne and humiliating downfall in the mud of Bosworth Field resolve the unnatural state of events.

2. LEGITIMACY AND USURPATION

The concept of a natural order extended to such matters as political inheritance and succession. Again, the most important aspect of this was at the very top, the monarchy. A king achieved his position by birth, according to firmly established rules of inheritance. In the absence of an immediate heir, the next closest male relative was entitled to the crown. It was not until after the death of Henry VIII that women could become heirs to the throne.

To break with such an accepted tradition of royal succession was to defy the natural order. Usurpation--the unlawful, illegitimate, seizure of the crown--was a major crime. It was as serious as regicide, the killing of a king, which it usually involved. Such a monstrous act produced disorder, chaos, and even revolution. Richard demonstrates that he is aware of this as he carefully contrives to attain his goal. He must appear to be the legitimate occupant of the throne. That he is not a legitimate ruler is one of the play's chief political messages. If he were, Elizabeth I's legitimacy would be in question since she became queen as a result of Henry VII's own violent accession to the throne (the killing of Richard at Bosworth Field).

3. ON KINGSHIP

In the natural scheme of things, as the father was to the family, so was the king to the state. But while there were many fathers, there was only one king whose position at the head of the government ensured the smooth working of the political order. As such, it was essential that the king represent all that was good and just. If he failed to do this, the civil order would collapse--and this is often mirrored in Shakespeare's works by images of disease and other natural abnormalities.

Like the sun, a king must bring about fruitfulness and life. The sun is, therefore, a symbol of kingship as well as being Edward IV's family symbol. In his very first words, Richard binds the two together with his reference to this "son of York." The audience also hears the word sun, which represents Edward as both king and son of the House of York. There will be many other references to sun and light (a state of natural well-being) as opposed to darkness and shadow (illness). This reminds the Elizabethan audience of both the good and the bad monarch. After all, no fewer than five kings of England appear in Richard III--Henry VI, Edward IV, Edward V (the young Prince of Wales held the title although he was never crowned), Richard III, and Henry VII (Richmond). Track down and compare the images surrounding each monarch to see how Shakespeare presents them.

4. VENGEANCE

Throughout the play, a number of crimes are committed that cry out for revenge. Moreover, in several references to past events, the crimes committed not only by Richard, but by others (Clarence, Edward IV, Richard of York, Henry VI and Margaret) are all revealed in great detail. Demands for vengeance will echo throughout the play. And, for the most part, they will not be satisfied until the final scene when Richard is slain.

Prior to that, another form of vengeance takes place and Richard, surprisingly, is the instrument. As you examine the fate of Richard's victims, you must consider their own participation in criminal acts. Isn't Clarence guilty of murder? Hasn't Hastings participated in the usurpation of Henry VI's throne? In executing them, isn't Richard an agent for divine justice, a so-called "Scourge of God?" Yet at the same time, he defies that very God by committing homicide for his own gain. Critics point out that there was a theological explanation to permit such a duality. An apparently criminal act could often serve a greater purpose, as it did in this case. But the tension between these two aspects of Richard's character certainly adds to his fascination.

5. NEMESIS (DIVINE RETRIBUTION)

Most of the characters in Richard III experience a pattern of ultimate punishment for their sins, both during the play and before the action begins. The pattern leads from warnings that are ignored to eventual punishment. Clarence, Edward IV, Queen Elizabeth's relatives (Rivers, Grey, and Vaughan), Hastings, Buckingham, Lady Anne, Queen Elizabeth herself, and finally Richard himself are made aware of their crimes, and suffer punishment as a result. Either death or severe loss comes to the representatives of both houses of Lancaster and York in much the same way that noble families were cursed and destroyed by divine plan in ancient Greek drama. Thus, Richard can be seen not only as the maker of crimes, but also as the final victim of a succession of cursed family crimes. His own actions may be seen as the final blow to the royal house of Plantagenet, which included both the Lancasters and the Yorks.