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The Battle of Good vs. Evil: Character Analysis of Shakespeare's Richard III

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The Battle of Good vs. Evil: Character Analysis of Shakespeare's Richard III
Throughout history, there have been many opposing sides battling each other. King Richard 3 and Richmond represent either side of this never ending battle. The battle is good versus evil, dark versus light, death versus life, the sun against the darkness. It isn’t just Richard and Richmond though; they are but mere soldiers in the battle. This battle arises constantly and at random. Sometimes the soldiers of the battle are more important. For instance, Hitler’s battle with the world is more important than some petty rivalry (which is still included in the battle). However, who’s to say which side is the light and which is the dark? “History is written by the victor.” Whoever wins each skirmish gets to let history know who was good, and they usually write themselves off as the light. Sometimes it’s obvious who was good, but we can’t be certain for every skirmish in our history.

Richmond represents the light, the good , and life. He stands for what we should all be, and opposes all that we should. The victory of each skirmish tends to get the power, and then gets to write the history. When the victor writes teh history, the loser is written off as the dark, the death, the void. This would be Richard. Richard embodies evil, murder, and death. But how can we really tell if this is the truth? For all we know, Richmond was the bad one, not Richard. That is the case in all these skirmishes. Some of these soldiers are obviously on one side or the other, people like Hitler are obviously on the negative side.

When Richmond gives his oration to his army, he’s speaking not only to them, but also to God. He believes he is on the light side, the side fighting for God and all that is good. He’s trying to convince everyone that HE is the light, a savior of England, and the future king. He represents all that your parents told you you should be. His purpose is simply to defeat the darkness, to defeat death. He attempts to do so by rallying the men who support him. His

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