Essay
The Importance of the Self in Richard III and The Representation of Cipher and 'O' in Midsummer's Night Dream
- Vak
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Essay of 11 pages for the course Intensive Shakespeare at Royal Holloway University of London (London)
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‘A single word in Shakespeare can provide the spur for a reading ofthe entire play in which it appears’ (Nicholas Royle). Which word in
each of the plays studied strikes you as the key to understanding
the entire play, and why?
‘Words words words.’ (Hamlet, II.ii, 183) Shakespeare’s plays are all about the
performance and deliverance of lexicology. Words may transgress their
boundaries; duplicitously they may have synchronous connotations, but each
play is stimulated by a single word which exemplifies the whole play. Richard
III is concerned with the representation of the ‘I’; the play is all about the self
as suggested by the narcissistic title. The main word is the self-reflexive,
singular, first person, egotistical pronoun ‘I.’ This play focuses on the
functioning of the self, where nothing is about reciprocity, as Richard is
insecure in regards to his deformation and worries only about his own selfish
needs.
The opening soliloquy reveals words as masochistic injuries marking
the self as verbally deformed. Immediately the tautologist, Richard,
understates himself through his ‘strip tease’, as he peels of layers of villainy,
revealing his evil purpose, to titillate and anatomise. The primal cause for the
lack of love is the body. The use of hyperbaton places prominence on the self
through word-shifting, and transformation of the natural order. ‘I that am
not…Plots have I laid’ (Richard III, I.i.15, 32) The unnatural syntactic inversion
mimics Richard’s deformed nature and figure. The triadic repetition in each
alternating line ‘I that am’ visually and sonically heightens Richard’s
insecurity. Richard’s self-flagellation reveals a sense of his inhumanity. The
use of litotes creates a scene of pathos and pity amidst his self-description of
‘deformity’ and ‘unfinished[ness]’ (Richard III, I.i, 21) combined with the use
of visceral imagery of being ‘half made up.’ This building up of
understatements leads to the autonomy of his will ‘determinèd to prove a
,villain’ (Richard III, I.i, 30), which reveal a Machiavellian. Richard does not
conceal his nature and characteristics and makes it palpable like his
deformity, commanding that ‘I am subtle, false and treacherous.’ (Richard III,
I.i, 37)
McKellen enacts this scene by allowing the camera to follow him in a
tracking shot through use of montage. When Richard speaks of looking at his
shadow and ‘descant[ing] on [his] own deformity’ (Richard III, I.i, 28), he
illustrates his words by looking at himself in the mirror. He examines his face
and asserts ‘I can…murder whiles I smile…’ (Henry VI Part 3, III.ii, 182) He
then makes eye-contact with the audience in the mirror, adding: ‘I cannot
prove a lover . . . I am determinèd to prove a villain.’ (Richard III, I.i, 28-30)
Likewise whenever Olivier addresses the camera he directs the camera
towards himself and leads it. Olivier is significantly the director and Richard,
directing the outcome of the plot.
Richard’s assuredness in the self is shown in the continual utilisation of
the modal auxiliary verb ‘will.’ The use of the tactful verb reveals a sense of
assuredness in the self and is an overstated conviction. The volitional
progressive ‘will’ is a means of investment for the self, ‘I’ll marry Warwick’s
daughter’ (Richard III, I.i, 155), and his possession of Anne, ‘I’ll have her but I
will not keep her long’ (Richard III, I.ii, 236), which self-acknowledges lack of
libidinal investment in her, as Anne ‘acts as a passport to more general
success.’1 Richard solely uses other individuals for his own selfish needs as a
means of investment. He will gain the submissive female other to gain his
1 William, Shakespeare. “The Tragedy of King Richard III” ed. John Jowett (Oxford:
Oxford World Classics, 2008) p.41
, was to the throne even though he suggests that it was ‘I that killed her
husband and father.’ (Richard III, I.ii, 237)
The value of the self is further embodied in the exchanging of the rings
which signify that two beings become one entity, that that ‘you’ and ‘me’ in
Richard’s case become ‘I’ and Richard’s possession. The use of the visual
patterning of alternating anaphora and the constant shifting between the ‘I’,
‘me’, and ‘thy’ attempts at merging the two; after the dramatic falling of the
sword, Richard commands that they should either become one through his
death or their marriage. This mercantile economic quality in offering the self
to the female reveals the desire to make his ‘half-made up’ (Richard III, I.i,
22) body whole. Aristophanes once said to Socrates that human nature was
originally one (meaning that we had four hands and feet, one head and two
faces), the partitioning of the body caused human beings to suffer from love
meaning the desire and pursuit of the whole, to bring the two beings as one
again. Richard’s half-formed body therefore means that his pursuit for love is
even grander, as his corporal being is deformed. Richard’s deformation spurs
his quest for self-love and egotism. Throughout this speech, Anne becomes
intoxicated with the flurry of first person pronouns, thus her lexical field
mirrors and reciprocates that of Richard, already marrying Richard
semantically and fulfilling his identity. The use of stichomythia further
illustrates the yearning for completeness. The badinage begins with Richard’s
half-made up sentence for Anne to complete. The repartee allows for charged
units of kinetic energy as the two listen attentively to each other’s semantic
choice and rhythm of speech. He desires that the two both ‘encompassseth’
and ‘encloseth’ (Richard III, I.ii, 208-9) each other through the use of props.
The prop is important as it derives from property thus invoking possession.
He desires to make his deformation a reformation. While disputing his intent
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