The Irony of Richard's Attractiveness in Shakespeare's Richard III

Shakespeare's history play, The Tragedy of Richard III (1592), features a title character with a commanding presence and domineering strength. The irony, in this play full of irony, is that physically, Richard is weak and ugly. Richard shows his strength and attractiveness through his rhetorical skills instead of through his physical attributes. He has mastered the use of language and he uses that skill to manipulate people to his will and draw them to him. Also, Shakespeare heightens the energy and intensity of Richard and his actions to make him more attractive to other character and the audience.

Richard has the ability to control both language and people. He knows he has this power and he uses it to manipulate, scheme and murder his way to the throne. Although Richard's fall happens shortly after his ascension, he would not have been able to achieve the throne had he not been so compelling to other characters.

In act 3, Richard refers to himself as the Vice character because of his ability to "moralize two meanings in one word" (1.83). Stephen Greenblatt describes Richard's talent as "a skill in playing with the doubleness of words and exploiting the slipperiness of language" (510). In act 1, Richard talks with his brother Clarence while Clarence is on his way to prison because King Edward received a prophecy that his children will be disinherited by a person whose name starts with the letter 'G.' King Edward thinks this means Clarence because his full name is George, Duke of Clarence. Richard tells Clarence that this disgrace "touches me dearer than you can imagine" (1.113).

Of course, Clarence assumes that Richard shares his outrage that their brother King Edward would imprison him. Richard means Clarence to infer this, while Richard actually means that he is the one to whom the prophecy refers, because he is the Duke of Gloucester and he has plans to seize the throne himself. Richard manages to endear Clarence to himself and set him against King Edward, even as Richard plans to send murderers to kill Clarence in prison. Richard also tells Clarence that his "imprisonment shall not be long" (1.115), another subtle reference to his murderous plans.

In act 4, Richard spends a lengthy amount of time bantering with Queen Elizabeth about the possibility of marrying her daughter to cement his ties to the throne. This woman despises him and continually reminds him of the murder of her two sons, which Richard engineered. Yet after Richard showers her with a constant barrage of speech, she finally bends to his will. He asks her to help him win the younger Elizabeth, and Queen Elizabeth finally says, "I go. Write to me very shortly, / And you shall understand from me her mind" (4.359-60). Richard calls her a "shallow, changing woman" (4.362) for giving in to him.

Perhaps the best example of Richard's skill occurs in act 1, scene 2, when Richard has the outrageous gall to woo Lady Anne while she accompanies her husband's body to be buried. The stunning display of bravado on Richard's part shows his incredible confidence in his manipulative ability. He approaches this woman who absolutely loathes him, against the backdrop of the unburied coffin of her dead husband, and persuades her to marry him. Anne calls him, among other things, "thou dreadful minister of hell" (46), a "diffused infection of a man" (78), and tells him, "Thou dost infect mine eyes" (148). She breathes dreadful oaths of pure hatred at him throughout their entire encounter, yet these insults do not even phase Richard as he continually bombards her with words. He even blatantly lies to her when he says, "I did not kill your husband" (91).

A few lines later, he says that Henry should "thank me that holp to send him thither" (107) to heaven. In the end, Richard convinces Anne to marry him and let him bury her husband instead of her. Richard wins Anne's grudging affection through his skilled manipulation of her vanity, saying, "I did kill King Henry; / But 'twas thy beauty that provokéd me" (167-68). Then he exults in his improbable victory, that he could win her "With curses in her mouth, tears in her eyes, / The bleeding witness of my hatred by" (220-21).

Greenblatt says that "the scene's theatrical power rests . . . upon the spectacle of Richard's restless aggression transformed during the rapid-fire exchange of one-liners into a perverse form of sexual provocation and of Anne's verbal violence transformed, in spite of itself, into an erotic response" (511). Thus Richard's rhetorical skill endears Anne to himself because he overpowers her and overwhelms her so that she has no option left but to acquiesce. Her agreement to let him bury her husband shows that she has warmed to him enough to submit to his will. Although she may dislike him still, she cannot refuse him because of his power and attractive energy. Richard is provocative, brash and shocking, yet his linguistic prowess is extremely engaging. He speaks aggressively, and this aggression is erotic and compelling such that weaker characters, like Anne or Queen Elizabeth, cannot resist his will.

In addition to making Richard attractive to other characters, Shakespeare also makes him attractive to the audience. Greenblatt explains that Shakespeare does not for a moment conceal Richard's pure evil, and he makes this villain immensely captivating and invigorating nonetheless (511). Right from the beginning, in the play's opening soliloquy, Richard explains to the audience how he is "determinéd to prove a villain / And hate the idle pleasure of these days" (1.1.30-31). Richard is extremely bold, extremely confident, and extremely evil, and the audience is at the same time repulsed by his outrageousness and attracted to him. This attraction, according to Greenblatt, lies in the exorbitant, appalling energy, or "gusto" that Richard embodies. Greenblatt goes on to connect this attraction to Richard with theater itself, "with its capacity for emotional intensification, surprise, deception, and heightened energy" (511). Thus the energy bound up in the theater only increases the erotic appeal that Richard already exudes on-stage.

Shakespeare incorporates other elements into the play that also serve to heighten the overall energy. Although the plot of the play comes from actual historical events, Shakespeare takes some liberties with history to make the action of the play more dramatic. He condenses many events that happened over a long period of time, like the buildup to the climatic Battle of Bosworth Field. The gathering of rebellious forces and Richmond's landing in Milford are historical events, but Shakespeare has them all occur over the span of a few lines, instead of a few months. Also, Shakespeare mentions the killing of Rutland, Richard's older brother, but has Rutland portrayed as a baby to make the event more chilling.

On many occasions, Richard shares his plans with the audience, which causes the audience to connect with Richard because the audience sees a side of Richard that the characters do not. Richard tells the audience his plans, "To set my brother Clarence and the King / In deadly hate the one against the other" (1.1.34-35). In act 3, while talking with young Prince Edward, Richard says in an aside: "So wise, so young, they say do never live long" (1.79). This comment occurs shortly before Richard becomes king and has the young prince and his brother killed. Richard also reveals to the audience his plans to marry Anne "not all so much for love, / As for another secret close intent" (1.1.157-58). These things that only the audience know, coupled with Richard's cunning use of double-meaning that is misunderstood by the characters but understood by the audience, join the audience with Richard in deception and manipulation. These elements of extra excitement, enhanced by the energy present in the theater already, add to the erotic energy that Richard contains and enhance his attraction.

This attraction to Richard despite his physical deformities also contributes to the irony of the play. Shakespeare uses many examples of irony to emphasize the deceit that has taken place, or will take place, and to keep with the idea of the double meaning of language. Clarence dreams about his own death while he sits in prison, shortly before the murderers come for him, which is situational irony because he does not know that he is actually about to die. Hastings, the Lord Chamberlain, speaks very ironically when he tells Catesby, in reference to supporting Richard's bid to be king, "I'll have this crown of mine cut from my shoulders / Before I'll see the crown so foul misplaced" (3.2.40-41). A few lines later, Catesby, one of Richard's supporters, tells him: "'Tis a vile thing to die, my gracious lord, / When men are unprepared, and look not for it" (3.2.59-60). This is ironic because both the audience and Catesby know that Hastings is about to be executed by Richard's men.

Irony also exists in the character of Richard contrasted with his appearance. Physically, Richard is weak and ugly. He describes himself as being "Cheated of feature by dissembling nature, / Deformed, unfinished, sent before my time / Into this breathing world" (1.1.19-21). Yet Richard is also a strong character. His strength is not shown through his physical power, but through his rhetorical skills. And his attraction is not achieved through his physical appearance, but through his verbal energy.

This irony on Richard's part parallels action in the play. Many of the characters in the play agree that Richard is evil and they can see through his attempts at deceit. As the play progresses and Richard works his way closer and closer to the throne, more and more people come to hate him as they recognize how evil he is, and as he murders people dear to them. Queen Elizabeth knows this when she says that Richard is "A man that loves not me - nor none of you" (1.3.13). Richard's own mother, the Duchess of York, describing Richard, says: "He is my son, ay, and therein my shame; / Yet from my dugs he drew not this deceit" (2.2.29-30). Despite this evil that is apparent to those that know him best, Richard becomes king. This can be symbolized by the fact that although Richard is repulsive, he attracts people to himself. Greenblatt says that Richard's deformity is a sign that he is evil (509), thus Shakespeare parallels Richard's evil with his deformity, and his attractiveness with his ascension to the throne.

Richard has mastered the use of language, and he uses his skills to manipulate those around him. Because of his rhetorical prowess and verbal energy, other characters and the audience are attracted to him. This energy that Richard exudes is so aggressive and vigorous that he is erotically compelling to others. Richard has made himself extremely attractive despite being a physically weak and unattractive person, which contributes to the irony within the play.