He may be bad, but he is also fascinating.

__________Richard is indeed fascinating. Whether he is actually “bad" or not can be determined individually. Though a “villain", he can also be termed as a tragic character. Born with deformity - a hump on his back and a limp (supposedly) - in a social era when any such deformity was attributed to the devil, Richard would have grown, feeling inferior to the people around him, subhuman and beastly.

This can be clearly seen by the abhorrence his own mother has towards him:

__________He was probably spurned as a child for his deformity. His actions would have been attributed to a devilish and demonic spirit, which had supposedly grown within him. The Duchess of York, his mother, frequently laments of this. He has grown alienated from his brothers - it is clear that the Duchess has great affection for her other sons - and probably envious.
__________Thus, Richard resolves to be the best person he can be - in itself a good principle - in an attempt to gain approval. However, the lack of love he received from his mother has made him resent that sentiment. He is determined, therefore, to prove to them that love and trust is not such a favourable sentiment as they all seem to believe - he is “determined to prove a villain" and to reveal the weakness that love can be. This is a reaction from wanting love for so long. It is clear that Richard is very capable of being a “lover" - in his deception to Anne - so in saying that he cannot be such, he is in fact making a mockery of the sentiment of love. It is so easy for him to act a lover that obviously, even fools are lovers. The use of the term “caper" in his opening speech, though meaning to dance, has a silly clownish connotation. The knowledge of his deformity has made him resentful of love, of which he was deprived. He revels in “winters of discontent" this can be seen as the opening speech, although talking of “glorious summer" has an ominous tone to it.
__________The fact that he is deformed is constantly forced upon him. His constant references to it show that those thoughts plague him constantly, like a festering sore that eats away at him. The character trait of obsessiveness, which he inherited from his mother, does not help to alleviate this situation. Many other characters also make reference to his deformity -even his young nephew of York -Edward’s second son -who teases him, alluding to a Fool carrying a monkey:

      “like an ape,
    “He thinks that you should bear me on your shoulders."

__________The loneliness of Richard’s situation is compounded by the fact that his father, Richard Duke of York, is dead. Sons are, generally, closer to their father than their mother and it appears that “noble York, his princely father" was free from his scorn. The few times that Richard refers to him, there is no oath or slander attached at all.
__________Of course, the above has just been an inference based on various psychological reactions which generally occur. There has been little written evidence within the play which support the above suggestions, besides odd lines spoken by Richard which seem to suggest a deeper emotional trial that simple villainy and "badness". It seems that the principles and perspective he would have been taught as a child had warped due to the treatment he had received.

    “For God doth know and you partly see,
    How far I am from the desire of this [the throne]"

__________Although this is a heavily ironic statement - meaning that Richard really was very desirous for the throne - it is possible that Richard was also hinting at the fact that he did not want the literal throne, but what it symbolised power, stature and supremacy; all these things of which he was lacking.
__________As aforesaid, Richard wished to undermine the valued sentiments of love and trust. He wished to prey on the weaknesses of those who had preyed on his, of deformity. Thus he pretends to show love to various characters within the play - Anne, his brother Clarence, and Buckingham in an attempt to prove what misery there is in love. It is interesting to note, along this vindictive strain, of Richard’s attitude towards Margaret. Margaret despises the Yorks, accusing them of unlawfully ceasing the throne, by Henry V’s murder - in short, acting unfairly by her. Richard resents her for this, because he and the Yorks believe the throne was lawfully taken - in the killing of Edward Prince of Wales, at Tewkesbury. On the other hand, Richard himself seems to justify his own right to resentment and revenge, in that his victims had acted unlawfully by him, so he could retaliate unfairly in return. Again, this is a somewhat inferred situation.
__________Richard, despite all this hidden desire for acceptance and love, or perhaps because of these, did not value sentimental emotions. Throughout the play, one of the themes - Honour - is represented by the comparison of Richard and Richmond. While Richmond bears a comparatively sentimental or spiritual honour, Richard strived for the honour that came from glory on the battlefield. He despised “this weak piping time of peace" and longed for the adventure of the battlefield. Richard could not endure “merry meetings" dances to “delightful measures" or “capering nimbly in a lady’s chamber / To the lascivious pleasing of a lute" because there was no challenge in it. He also despised them, again, because it was all a “merry" time, but he himself would still feel miserable and rejected.
__________The fact that he revels in others' downfall can also be seen, when he inquires of Tyrrel, how the two princes were murdered. He is eager to know every detail of it:

    “Thou shalt tell the process of their death"

This shows how completely warped his thinking and emotional processes have become.
__________Richard was clearly intelligent and people with active minds required constant activity challenge their intellect - he needed a “world to bustle in". It did not matter to him what he did, as long as it challenged him. It is possible that, again, his deformity played a motive in this desire - he had been so long accused of evil that he decided to actually live up to that reputation. This can be seen when he says, in his opening speech:

    “I am subtle, false, and treacherous.

__________The manner he states this implies that this was the persona he had to take, and not that he was actually such a character. In this way, Richard seems to be acting a character in a play, rather than literally being a villain.
__________Further proof of Richard’s intelligence is his ability to deceive, and pitch one person against another; he could see the weaknesses of others and targeted them to his advantage -Buckingham’s greed, Hastings' dislike of Elizabeth, Anne’s confusion.
__________Throughout the play, Richard appears to be strictly atheist, with no fear of omens, superstitions, or spirits -unlike his brothers. However, this seems rather to be a show of strength, rather than any truth. Again this can be linked to the festering sore of his deformity. Any other form of weakness is spiteful; Richard appears, on the surface, to bear no other weakness than that of his deformity. He overpowers everyone at the beginning of the play - Anne, Clarence, the Murderers, and Margaret. However, by the end of the play, the audience sees that he is very insecure. He kills everyone remotely attached to the throne in order to secure his position as the supreme power. The one who stopped him was Richmond, who symbolised the hero figure. The audience hears little of Richmond at the beginning of the play, but the impression is always of the perfect noble man and a threat to Richard. Even though the two never met till the battle of Bosworth Field, there was always an enmity between them. This fact reveals another weakness in Richard:

    “a bard of Ireland told me once,
    I should not live long after I saw Richmond"

__________His enmity with Richmond also became a festering obsession because Richard saw that he was one man that he probably could not have killed. Thus it can be seen that, though he spoke and acted the contrary, Richard was indeed afraid of death and the punishment he would receive. He probably would not admit it, even to himself, but it was an underlying irritation. Richard may swear by Saint Paul and Saint John and Saint George, disregard conscience and Judgment as weaknesses, but subconsciously continues to heed them. He convinced himself that his actions were justified, as aforesaid, because he had been unfairly treated and so could retaliate unfairly in return; but he gradually learnt that he was wrong. This can be seen in Act v Scene iii, after he awakes from his nightmare:

    “O coward conscience, how dost thou afflict me!...
    What do I fear? Myself?...
    Richard loves Richard: That is, I am I.
    Is there a murder here... No, Yes, I am...
    My conscience has a thousand several tongues,
    And every tongue brings in a several tale,
    And every tale condemns me for a villain...
    Perjury, perjury...
    Murder, stern murder...
    Guilty! Guilty!...
    …There is no creature loves me;
    And if I die, no soul will pity me.

__________The spite he had for cowardice - as any person ought to have (although his was incorrectly directed at conscience) -showed pride in Richard’s character. This trait, again, was probably incited by the constant abuse he received for his deformity. He must prove to himself that he is not so bad as people think, and is therefore always undermining others. It also showed that Richard felt he had to guard himself against all weaknesses, as a reaction to the one weakness for which everyone abused him - his deformity.

__________The obsession he had, in proving himself worthy, in proving himself supreme to Richmond, and supreme to everything even God Himself - for which he had convinced himself he was justified - he suddenly realised was false in the above instance. It seems outrageous a person displaying so much evil, who had “determined to prove a villain" should only then realise that he were such. This shows that Richard’s frame of mind was warped out of the common way of thinking, with the reason most likely to be because of the one weakness that everyone forces on him - that of his deformity. It shows that although he did actively pursue his victims, it was not because he enjoyed killing people but because of a false justification - this being caused, again, by low self-esteem caused by his deformity. This was the one weakness he had no control over, and from birth he had been plagued by it. Says his own mother:

    “A grievous burden was thy birth to me;
    Tetchy and wayward was thy infancy;
    They schooldays frightful, desperate, wild, and furious;
    Thy prime of manhood daring, bold and venturous;
    Thy age confirmed, proud, subtle, sly, and bloody"

__________As, in those times, everything was attributed to fate and God, Richard blamed his deformity on Him, and was thus so disrespectful. It was only towards the end of the play that he realised that although he had no control over his deformity, he had actively initiated the murders etc etc and was therefore accountable for those actions.
__________Richard’s obsessiveness and desire for supremacy cannot be only attributed to him and his deformity, however. The Duchess of York, his mother, displays frequent this traits - she constantly laments how Richard could have “drawn" this deceit “from her dugs" - and it acts like a festering sore on her, just as Richard’s deformity is on him. This exacerbates the problem between mother and son. The Duchess also desires power and supremacy - she must always lament and grieve the most:

    “She for an Edward weeps and so do I,
    I for a Clarence weeps and so doth not she
    These babes for a Clarence weep and so do I
    I for an Edward weeps and so do not they."

__________ Thus, Richard is, in fact, a person whose outer appearances mask the inner feelings and thoughts - both conscious and subconscious. Although his actions were all evil, the fundamental cause for them all was the one fault he could not control - his deformity. The frequent abuse and alienation he suffered because of it, led to a complete mutation in his way of thinking, compared to what he had actually been taught. It was all, subconsciously, done in self-defence. Thus, Richard’s character goes far deeper than the appearance of evil - he is, indeed, fascinating.

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