Oppression Of Women In Richard III By William Shakespeare

In his play Richard III, William Shakespeare chronologizes the bloody rise to Kinghood of the deformed English war general Richard III up to his demise, including moments of interaction between Richard and a number of women whom he lusts over. Two such interactions, between Richard and Lady Anne and later Richard and Queen Elizabeth concerning the Queen’s young daughter Elizabeth, highlight exactly how Richard is able to twist a truly broken situation to his advantage. After complaining about his lack of skill in persuading women to consider him desirable, due to his lack of shape “…for sportive tricks / Nor made to court an amorous looking glass…”, Richard’s ability to sway both a widow he created and the mother and wife of men he had killed
Through cunning wordplay and extravagant promises of emotion, Richard is able to not only sooth their righteous fury towards him but also twist them to following his own will. Richard’s lamenting on his inability to sway the fairer sex, then, is beyond false and into the realm of ludicrousness. The characters most likely to hold an everlasting hatred for the murderer due to his actions are the ones swayed to either marrying him or at least considering the idea. These rapid changes of heart are used to highlight just how seductive darkness can be, by showing how quickly widows can be manipulated into siding with the one who made them widows to begin with. Not only do these events show how flimsy women’s devotions were believed to be during Shakespeare’s time, they also bring to light the deeper depravity of Richard’s character by showing how simply killing those standing in the way of the throne was not enough for him, but how he also felt the need to wed the surviving loved ones of his victims, claiming them for himself. Death alone was not enough punishment for the obstacles to Richard’s throne, but their wives and sisters were also made trophies of their