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The Importance of the Self in Richard III and The Representation of Cipher and 'O' in Midsummer's Night Dream $7.98
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  3. Royal Holloway University Of London (London)
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  5. English
  6.  
  7. Intensive Shakespeare

Essay

The Importance of the Self in Richard III and The Representation of Cipher and 'O' in Midsummer's Night Dream
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  • Module
  • Intensive Shakespeare
  • Institution
  • Royal Holloway University Of London (London)

Essay of 11 pages for the course Intensive Shakespeare at Royal Holloway University of London (London)

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Document information

  • February 3, 2015
  • 11
  • 2013/2014
  • Essay
  • Unknown
  • Unknown

Subjects

  • shakespeare
  • richard iii
  • cipher
  • nothing
  • self
  • words
  • midsumers night dream
  • o
  • i

Written for

  • Royal Holloway University of London (London)
  • English
  • Intensive Shakespeare
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‘A single word in Shakespeare can provide the spur for a reading of
the 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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