Richard III

The contrast between Richard’s and Richmond’s leadership in the final act of Richard III hints that Richmond will be a far more ethical and deserving monarch for England than Richard, thereby ending The Violent Cycle of Civil Unrest in England. Through Richard’s and Richmond’s behavior before the battle and the speeches they give to their troops, Shakespeare conveys that Richmond is more mindful of God’s will and moral justice, while Richard remains entirely self-serving.

The night before the Battle of Bosworth Field, both Richard and Richmond are presented as they prepare to sleep in their tents. Richmond notably prays before he falls asleep, saying, “To Thee I do commend my watchful soul / Ere I let fall the windows of mine eyes / Sleeping and waking, O, defend me still!” (5.3.121-123). Richard, however, does not pray to God for protection during the night and he is therefore tormented by dreams of his murder victims telling him to despair and die. Those same murdered spirits then appear to Richmond in his dreams, encouraging him and promising victory. Shakespeare uses the language of rising and falling here to indicate the loss of political power, with the ghosts of the princes warning Richard, “Let us be lead within thy bosom, Richard / And weigh thee down to ruin, shame, and death” (5.3.156-157). Through this scene, Shakespeare suggests that Richmond’s thoughts tend up toward heaven, while Richard is dragged down to hell by the weight of his sins.

Likewise, the speeches that Richard and Richmond give before battle reflect the difference in their character. Richard’s speech urges his soldiers to fight for selfish reasons, suggesting that strength matters more than a righteous cause:

Conscience is but a word that cowards use,

Devised at first to keep the strong in awe.

Our strong arms be our conscience, swords our law.

March on. Join bravely. Let us to it pell mell,

If not to heaven, then hand in hand to hell (5.3.327-331).

While Richard seeks to persuade his troops with rhetoric that disregards Christian justice, Richmond’s speech evokes the morality of his desire for the throne. Rather than seeking it for selfish reasons, Richmond frames his cause as a selfless desire to save England, reminding his troops that Richard has no just claim to the throne:

One raised in blood, and one in blood established;

One that made means to come by what he hath,

And slaughtered those that were the means to help him;

A base foul stone, made precious by the foil

Of England’s chair, where he is falsely set (5.3.261-266).

Through the difference in these speeches, Shakespeare hints that Richmond will be a better king than Richard because he cares about divine justice, righteous causes, and the good of England over personal gain.

At the end of the play, Richard is killed ingloriously in battle. While throughout most of the play he has been an unrepentant monster with no apparent conscience, the final act intriguingly shows him beginning to doubt his choices. After dreaming about his victims warning him that he will die, Richard awakes and begins to question himself for the first time. His speech uses repetition, circular logic, and double meanings to convey his paranoid and fragmented state:

What do I fear? Myself? There’s none else by.

Richard loves Richard, that is, I am I.

Is there a murderer here? No. Yes, I am.

Then fly! What, from myself? Great reason why:

Lest I revenge. What, myself upon myself?

Alack, I love myself. Wherefore? For any good

That I myself have done unto myself?

O, no. Alas, I rather hate myself

For hateful deeds committed by myself.

I am a villain. Yet I lie; I am not (5.3.194-203).

Through the use of multiple paradoxes and contradictions, Richard reveals that the person he has harmed most through his actions is actually himself. Rather than achieving great things through evil means, he begins to understand that he has actually doomed himself. Therefore, his selfish self-love turns to self-hate and self-abuse. While at the beginning of the play, he embraced the role of villain, here he tries to deny it. Through this speech, Shakespeare undercuts Richard’s skill and charisma as a villainous protagonist, exposing how he has only really achieved self-destruction through his success. This turns the conclusion of the play into a potent warning about ambition, indicating that even those who achieve high station through evil means will only ever succeed in bringing ruin upon themselves.