56 pages • 1 hour read
William ShakespeareRichard III
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1597A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Historical Context: The Wars of the Roses
Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses ableist language common during the Elizabethan era to describe Richard’s curvature of the spine.
The Wars of the Roses were a series of civil conflicts fought in England from 1455 to 1487. During this period, the royal Plantagenet family was divided into two factions: the House of Lancaster and the House of York. The House of Lancaster were the descendants of John of Gaunt, the third eldest son of King Edward III. John of Gaunt’s son, Henry, usurped the throne from Edward III’s grandson and direct heir, Richard II, becoming King Henry IV.
This began a period of instability in England’s royal politics. King Henry IV’s son, Henry V, was a popular and successful monarch, but died young, leaving his infant son, Henry VI, to inherit the throne. Henry VI’s reign was a troubled period, as regents and advisors struggled for control over the monarchy. Once he became an adult, Henry VI was prone to periods of mental instability that further eroded his influence over the English nobility. His wife, Queen Margaret, became an effective but controversial figure in English politics when her husband was beset by episodes of mental illness.
In 1455, Henry VI’s cousin, the Duke of York, began a war to claim the throne. The House of York was descended from King Edward III’s fourth eldest son, making their bloodline nearly as prestigious as the House of Lancaster. During this period of war, Henry VI was captured by the House of York and imprisoned in the Tower of London, while his son and heir, Prince Edward, was killed at the battle of Tewkesbury.
However, the Duke of York was also killed in battle, leaving his three sons—Edward, George, and Richard—to inherit the throne. Henry VI eventually died in prison, ending the Lancastrian bloodline. The House of York was later defeated by Henry, Earl of Richmond, at the battle of Bosworth Field. Henry, Earl of Richmond, became Henry VII, the first monarch of the Tudor dynasty whose claim to the throne came from a bastard branch of John of Gaunt’s line. The Tudors ended this period of civil war and unrest amidst England’s nobility, maintaining peace between aristocratic factions.
Literary Context: William Shakespeare’s Histories
Scholars categorize Shakespeare’s plays into several distinct genres: comedies, tragedies, and histories. Richard III is one of Shakespeare’s history plays because it deals with real historical events that occurred in medieval England. Richard III is the final play of what is referred to as the first tetralogy, a sequence of plays preceded by Henry VI Parts 1, 2, and 3. This tetralogy of plays is the first written by William Shakespeare, who wrote the three parts of Henry VI between 1590 and 1592 and Richard III between 1592 and 1594. Later on, Shakespeare would return to the subject of England’s political history with the second tetralogy, a sequence of plays that include Richard II (1595), Henry IV Parts 1 and 2 (1597-98), and Henry V (1599). Despite being written first, the first tetralogy covers events that are chronologically later than the second tetralogy.
Many interpreters of Shakespeare’s histories, particularly Richard III, have noticed a bias toward the ancestors of the Tudor dynasty. Shakespeare wrote these plays during the reign of a Tudor monarch, Queen Elizabeth, and therefore might have wanted to portray her ancestors in a flattering light. Shakespeare portrays Richard III as particularly monstrous, evil, and deformed because he was the direct enemy of Queen Elizabeth’s grandfather, Henry VII.
A major theme of the history plays is the fall of the medieval political system due to corruption, internal strife, and political manipulation. While many contemporary chronicles and books of history attempted to attribute the rises and falls of English political factions to divine providence or fate, Shakespeare avoids directly commenting on the legitimacy of each ruler’s political claim, allowing the audience to draw their own conclusions about who acted as a proper monarch through observing their actions and behaviors.
Cultural Context: Disability in the Renaissance
Performances of Richard III are faced with the question of how to navigate portraying Richard’s curvature of the spine. The language of the play relies on a Renaissance association between bodily deformity and immorality, which evokes discriminatory ableist stereotypes. During Shakespeare’s time, physical differences in the body were typically associated with the unnatural, with magic or witchcraft, and sometimes with moral corruption. People with physical disabilities were often taken to religious shrines to be healed through the power of prayer, while disfiguring illnesses and medical conditions were sometimes viewed as divine punishments for sin.
In the case of Richard III, the recent discovery of his body in 2013 confirms that he did suffer from scoliosis, resulting in a curvature of his spine. While performances of Shakespeare’s play often depict him with a hunchback and a limp, the historical Richard III was likely able to walk well and his condition was only noticeable as it made his right shoulder higher than his left. Shakespeare may have exaggerated the extent of his disability to make the case that he was an unfit and unnatural monarch for England.
Recent scholarship has also indicated that, while modern audiences might see a curved spine as a disability, Shakespeare portrays Richard’s condition as a deformity rather than as a condition that limits or harms his physical health. Shakespeare’s Richard is a powerful fighter and a shrewd, effective politician. While he faces derision and suspicion due to his curved spine, his detractors focus on its abnormality and strangeness more than weakness or infirmity. In light of this, some scholars have argued that Richard should not be read as having a disability. However, other modern productions subvert Shakespeare’s purpose and use Richard’s curvature of the spine to give him a more sympathetic motivation, focusing on the scorn and unfair treatment he receives at the hands of other courtiers.
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