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Richard III
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Character Analysis
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses ableist language common during the Elizabethan era to describe Richard’s curvature of the spine.
Richard, Duke of Gloucester, is the protagonist and villain of Richard III. He is the younger brother of King Edward IV and George, Duke of Clarence. While in the past he supported his brother Edward in his war to take the throne from King Henry VI, he eventually becomes ambitious for the throne himself. Richard is experienced in battle and Lady Anne Neville recalls that he was instrumental in the death of her previous husband, Prince Edward of Westminster, at the Battle of Tewkesbury.
Richard’s cunning and his strength in combat is contrasted with his deformed body. At the beginning of the play, Richard bitterly describes how he does not thrive at court during peacetime, claiming that he is “not shaped for sportive tricks / Nor made to court an amorous looking glass / I, that am rudely stamped” (1.1.14-16). Since Richard is not handsome, he is unable to enjoy peaceful courtly culture, and therefore he resolves to become a villain and seize the throne from his brothers.
Throughout the play, other characters describe Richard as having a hunched or misshapen spine. Queen Elizabeth refers to him as “that foul bunch-backed toad!” (4.4.83), denoting a visible hump in his back caused by a disability. William Shakespeare uses Richard’s non-normative body to signify his moral and spiritual deficiencies, equating bodily difference with monstrosity and the demonic. Richard appears to embrace his identity as a villain, declaring in soliloquys and asides to the audience that his plan is to achieve power by embracing sin. Richard’s hunger for power ensures that he will stop at nothing to achieve his goals, as he orchestrates the murder of his own brother and those of his nephews, one of whom is the rightful heir to the throne. As the play progresses, Richard’s villainous behavior becomes alienating even for his firmest supporters.
Another of Richard’s main characteristics is his skill in rhetoric and verbal manipulation. While he confesses his wicked intentions to the audience, he consistently presents himself as humble, simple-minded, pious, and even pathetic. When he seduces Lady Anne Neville to be his wife, he relies on her pity to woo her, claiming that he will kill himself for love if she commands it. To his brothers, he feigns loyalty and humility, often invoking God and spirituality to cover up his ambitions. In one aside to the audience, he draws attention to this tactic, announcing, “thus I clothe my naked villainy / With odd old ends stol’n forth of Holy Writ / And seem a saint when most I play the devil” (1.3.356-358). As the play goes on, however, more and more of his subjects begin to see through this ruse. In particular, Shakespeare emphasizes how the common people are never taken in by Richard’s lies, remaining suspicious of his intentions despite his skillful rhetoric.
At the end of the play, Richard is killed at the Battle of Bosworth Field by the Earl of Richmond—the future Henry VII and first king of the Tudor dynasty. While he feels briefly conflicted on the eve of battle when he dreams of his murder victims, he marches into the fight still claiming to his troops that strength matters more than morality. His ignominious defeat in battle is presented as a just comeuppance for his crimes at the hands of a morally superior foe.
Lady Anne
Lady Anne Neville is the wife of Richard III and serves as a tragic character in the narrative. Anne is the daughter of the Earl of Warwick, a powerful nobleman also known as “Warwick the Kingmaker” for his influence over England’s politics during the Wars of the Roses (See: Background). She was previously married to the son of King Henry VI, Prince Edward of Westminster. However, she lost her father, her husband, and the king she served at the battle of Tewkesbury.
At the beginning of the play, she is in mourning for their loss and blames Richard and his brothers for their deaths. Richard seduces Anne, although he admits that he does not harbor genuine romantic feelings for her, stating, “The which will I, not all so much for love / As for another secret close intent” (1.1.161-162). While this secret intention is never explicitly named, it is implied that Richard seeks to use her for his own political advancement and then discard her once he has the opportunity to marry a woman of higher status. It also suggests that he may be attempting a sadistic challenge for his own abilities, allowing him to prove his rhetorical skill by marrying a woman who has so many reasons to hate him.
Lady Anne is initially repelled by Richard, insulting him and wishing for vengeance against him. She goes so far as to curse his future wife, not realizing that she is fated to become his wife. When she sees him at the funeral procession of Henry VI, she prays, “If ever he have wife, let her be made / More miserable by the death of him / Than I am made by my young lord and thee—” (1.2.27-29). However, Anne’s curse does not come to pass, as Richard kills her before she can see him dead.
Richard persuades Anne to marry him by using both flattery and pity against her. He lies to her and tells her that he only killed her husband because he was so deeply in love with her. He claims that she has total power over him because of the strength of his love, begging her to take his ring or else command him to kill himself. While Anne has wished him dead and tormented in her speech, she cannot go through with allowing him to die, telling him, “Though I wish thy death / I will not be thy executioner” (1.2.202-203). After this, she begins to soften toward him, believing that he is truly penitent for his role in the death of her family.
After their marriage, Anne regrets falling for Richard’s tricks. She represents her regret and dissatisfaction through a description of insomnia, lamenting, “For never yet one hour in his bed / Did I enjoy the golden dew of sleep / But with his timorous dreams was still awaked” (4.1.87-89). Dreams in Richard III are often prophetic (See: Symbols & Motifs) and her lack of dreams due to Richard’s own nightmares signifies that her future will be cut short by his paranoia. In the end, Richard orders her to be confined and then killed so that he can attempt to woo his brother Edward’s daughter, Princess Elizabeth.
Queen Elizabeth
Queen Elizabeth is the wife of King Edward IV and the mother of Prince Edward and Richard, Duke of York. She is a dynamic character who begins the play in a very high station, but is gradually stripped of her influence and her power. At the start of Richard III, Queen Elizabeth is a haughty queen who has advanced many of her relatives into high stations at court. As a result, many courtiers suspect that she is the one behind the imprisonment and death of George, Duke of Clarence. She is superstitious, believing in a prophecy that Edward’s heirs will be killed by a man named “G.” While the “G” appears to indicate that George will betray her, Shakespeare hints that the “G” might actually refer to Gloucester, Richard’s noble title at the beginning of the play.
As her husband, King Edward IV, grows sick and near to death, Queen Elizabeth becomes increasingly fearful that she will lose her high station and outlive her male relatives. Throughout the play, Queen Elizabeth is stripped of her power and loses her brothers, husband, and sons to Richard’s machinations. She is forced to leave court and claim sanctuary in a church to survive. By the end of the play, she resorts to witchcraft as the only way to maintain agency. After Queen Margaret mocks her, showing her that she has fallen from power in the same way that her predecessor did when her husband died, Queen Elizabeth begs the older woman, “O, thou well-skilled in curses, stay awhile / And teach me how to curse mine enemies” (4.4.119-120).
However, Queen Elizabeth does not end up able to oppose Richard in any meaningful way. While she condemns him and criticizes him for the deaths of her sons, he persuades her that he can return her to power by marrying her daughter. Elizabeth is initially resistant to this, hating Richard and seeing his marriage proposal as unnatural, but he seems to convince her after a long conversation that the marriage will allow her to preserve her life and her family’s influence. Richard appears to disdain her for this, even though he is the one who has tempted her, calling her a “Relenting fool and shallow, changing woman!” (4.4.444). Ultimately, Queen Elizabeth is a woman terrified by losing her power and her safe station at court, and she is willing to compromise her own pride and morality to prevent a total loss of status.
Queen Margaret
Queen Margaret is a minor antagonist in Richard III who represents the ongoing bitterness caused by the Wars of the Roses (See: Background) between England’s nobility. She serves as a foil to Queen Elizabeth, her successor as England’s Queen, but she also shares traits in common with Richard himself.
Queen Margaret is the widow of King Henry VI, who lost her husband and son in battle to King Edward IV’s allies. While she was officially exiled on pain of death, she remains at court, powerless and spiteful against her enemies. She is described as an old and bitter woman, often using language that affiliates her with witches. When she curses Edward IV’s court and predicts its future downfall, Richard snaps back, “Have done thy charm, thou hateful, withered hag” (1.3.225). While Queen Margaret seems devoid of power, her curse does seem to work, as Richard’s rise to power results in the deaths of most of Edward IV’s loyal supporters.
While Queen Margaret could have left England, Shakespeare suggests that she remains because she wishes to see her husband and son avenged. Due to the cyclical nature of the violence of the Wars of the Roses, she believes that she only needs to wait in order to see her enemies die. As Richard claims the throne by killing Edward IV’s young sons, she rejoices:
So now prosperity begins to mellow
And drop into the rotten mouth of death.
Here in these confines slyly have I lurked
To watch the waning of mine enemies (4.4.1-4).
While Queen Margaret’s enemies are often bad people, her words here suggest that she is not a virtuous figure either. The hatred and desire for vengeance created by the Wars of the Roses has made her into a foil for Richard himself, lurking slyly in the shadows and awaiting the downfall of the royal family.
While Queen Margaret’s hatred of the House of York means that she does not mourn their downfall, she is not an ally of Richard and is actually one of the few people who immediately sees through his schemes. Rather than supporting his plans to manipulate and kill his relatives, Queen Margaret actually attempts to expose his duplicity to the other lords. She warns Buckingham: “[T]ake heed of yonder dog! / Look when he fawns, he bites; and when he bites / His venom tooth will rankle to the death” (1.3.307-310). She therefore serves as an antagonist to Richard as well as to his victims.
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