In Richard III, Shakespeare invites us on moral holiday. The early part ofthe play draws its readers to identify with Richard and thereby to participate in afantasy of total control of self and domination of others. We begin to be pulledinto the fantasy in the play’s opening speech, where Richard presents himself asan enterprising, self made villain and offers an elaborate justification for this selfhe renovation. In the first scene of the play, Richard announces in a narration, his plan tobecome king. Richard is truly a Machiavel. A Machiavel is “one who viewspolitics as amoral and that any means, however unscrupulous, can justifiably beused to achieve power”. Richard plainly states that he is "Deformed, Unfinished,and sent before his time" and "since he cannot prove to be a lover; he isdetermined to prove a villain". As a villain Richard must be heartless; he cannotlet his emotions interfere with his actions. He must also be intelligent andorganized; a villain must know exactly what he has to do, when he has to do itand how he is going to do it. "A villain must also be manipulative and persuasiveso that if he is accused of a crime, or if he finds himself between a rock and ahard place, he is able to talk his way out or convince people that he did notcommit the crimes in question. A villain must also have scapegoats to use if heis discovered or if he is in a dangerous situation". Richard devised a brutalstratagem to ascend the English throne. Alvarez 2Brilliantly, he executed his plan. Heartlessly, he executed family, friends,and subjects. Richard did indeed display these characteristics and, therefore,fulfilled his goal to ascend the throne. One of many Richard’s brilliant schemes was to increase public supportfor his own claim to the crown. Richard, aided by Buckingham, enacts shows ofdevotion, kindness, religiousness and other virtues, which recommend him to thecitizenry and especially to the Lord Mayor...
