![]() ![]() Once Anne has left the stage, in a soliloquy Richard proclaims, “Was ever a woman in this humour wooed? Was a woman in this humour won”? Shakespeare’s incorporation of anaphora through the repetition of “Was ever”, in conjunction with the repeated rhetorical questions almost forces the audience to admire his rhetorical skill, despite his cruelty, making us complicit in his scheming. ![]() Shakespeare also employs an antithesis, in order to criticise Richard’s ambitions for power, whilst the dichotomy of Gods earth and hell reinforces the extent to which the Elizabethans saw morality, in terms of extreme positions. ![]() In the scene which takes its form in stichomythic dialogue and soliloquy’s, religious imagery is utilised in “Thou hast made happy earth thy hell” in order to exemplify Richard’s desertion of religious morality, reasoning his evil behaviour to this cause. Shakespeare portrays Richard as a Machiavellian character, and as the protagonist who has a secular worldview. In Act 1 Scene 2, Richard woos Anne, whose father-in law and brother had been murdered by. ![]() The Elizabethan era was in a time of tension between free will and providentialism, and religious ideologies are a major theme in the play. In the early Elizabethan period, the audience was familiar with Machiavellian ideas including “The Prince: Politics have no relation to morals”, which contained ideologies including “Politics have no relations to morals” and “It is better to be feared than loved”. Shakespeare’s ‘King Richard III’, highlights the pursuit of power and its consequences. ![]()
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