Richard III Values

Humans find resonance in connections to ideas, values and concepts. Art and literature are shaped by the society in which they are made. In this, the values of the contextual society will impact, in some way, upon the outcome come of the piece of work as the creator seeks to appeal to their audience. However, the values presented by Shakespeare in his tragedy, written in the 15th century, Richard III (RIII) transcend Shakespeare’s contextual world and coincide with the values we hold today. The continuing relevance of the play RIII is fuelled by our contemporary societies desire to re-evaluate the role of women, characterisation of villains (Richard) and the role of materialism in modern day contexts. This desire is depicted through the 1998
Despite the contextual values, Shakespeare gives strong, prophetic and critical voices to the female characters of ‘Riii’. The women; ‘Anne’, ‘Margaret’, ‘Elizabeth’ and the ‘Duchess of York’ accurately depict the circumstances, characters and moral stances of the tragedy. ‘Thou hadst a Clarence too, and Richard killed him.’. Through mourning, cursing and prophesising the women provide insightful social commentary about the true nature of the nobility and their male counterparts. “Edward for Edward plays a dying debt”. The power of their speech and character is reinforced by strong animal imagery ‘rooting hog’ and Queen Elizabeth’s ability to match Richard in linguistics and wit “send to her by the man that slew her brother’. However, Shakespeare’s work is impacted upon by the ingrained values of his contextual society as his depiction of women and their role in the social hierarchy shows. Riii demonstrates that the thoughts of women are not valued highly; the audience is never allowed to see Elizabeth deciding to bestow her daughter on Richmond. Instead the audience is provided with Stanley's laconic report that ‘the Queen hath heartily consented / He [Richmond] should espouse Elizabeth her daughter’. This appeals to the nature of Shakespeare’s contextual
Pacino proposes an egalitarian stance in order to maintain a connection with Shakespeare and his audience. Thus Pacino is inclined to include women and their thoughts in order to make Shakespeare accessible to the modern day audience. The use of women in the cast provides insight into female characters and the language. The insight of Vanessa Redgrave ‘Shakespeare’s poetry and his iambics floated and descended through the pentameter of the soul’ in bright lighting reflects a desire to include women in order to reflect modern American values and connect ‘LFR’ to the values of Shakespeare. However the values of women Pacino personally holds are evident as he seeks to connect with the values of Shakespeare’s contextual society rather than Shakespeare’s himself. The choice of a young attractive female actor for Anne and the dubbing and muting of her voice throughout conversation with Richard can be read as a valuing of women not for their skills or voice but for sex