King Richard Iii and Looking for Richard
The texts King Richard III and Looking for Richard both accept the centrality of power and the yearning for it, as a central plot driver and an assumed part of the human condition. However, each presents a different perspective as to the nature of power; its origins and morality.
Discuss this statement with close, detailed reference to both texts set for study.
Power is defined as the possession of control or command over people and events. In Shakespeare’s play ‘King Richard III’, the centrality of power is communicated through characters and their pursuit for power while in ‘Looking for Richard’, Al Pacino’s docudrama exploring Richard as a character, his struggle for power is portrayed as well as Pacino’s struggle as he produces the film. Both texts accept the centrality of power by using it as a significant plot driver and assumed part of the human condition. The two texts, however, present different concepts about the nature of power through the techniques used for different audiences, influenced by the contexts in which the texts are composed.
In Shakespeare's play, it is easily seen that power is central as the whole situation that the characters find themselves in is due to a struggle for power, a fight for the throne. The civil war between the houses of York and Lancasters has been won ‘by this son of York’, King Edward, Richard’s brother. In the opening soliloquy Richard says ‘…since I cannot prove a lover/ To entertain these fair well-spoken days, / I am determined to prove a villain’. It is not only Richard who thirsts for power, but also Buckingham and the Woodvilles. Buckingham chooses to politically align himself with Richard for his gain, apparent when he asks Richard for the promised earldom of Hereford. He ignores Margaret’s warnings about Richard and continues to support him. He also enjoys acting almost as much as Richard, seen in Act 3 scene 5 when he tells Richard he can ‘counterfeit the deep tragedian’, and ‘I will play the orator’
Discuss this statement with close, detailed reference to both texts set for study.
Power is defined as the possession of control or command over people and events. In Shakespeare’s play ‘King Richard III’, the centrality of power is communicated through characters and their pursuit for power while in ‘Looking for Richard’, Al Pacino’s docudrama exploring Richard as a character, his struggle for power is portrayed as well as Pacino’s struggle as he produces the film. Both texts accept the centrality of power by using it as a significant plot driver and assumed part of the human condition. The two texts, however, present different concepts about the nature of power through the techniques used for different audiences, influenced by the contexts in which the texts are composed.
In Shakespeare's play, it is easily seen that power is central as the whole situation that the characters find themselves in is due to a struggle for power, a fight for the throne. The civil war between the houses of York and Lancasters has been won ‘by this son of York’, King Edward, Richard’s brother. In the opening soliloquy Richard says ‘…since I cannot prove a lover/ To entertain these fair well-spoken days, / I am determined to prove a villain’. It is not only Richard who thirsts for power, but also Buckingham and the Woodvilles. Buckingham chooses to politically align himself with Richard for his gain, apparent when he asks Richard for the promised earldom of Hereford. He ignores Margaret’s warnings about Richard and continues to support him. He also enjoys acting almost as much as Richard, seen in Act 3 scene 5 when he tells Richard he can ‘counterfeit the deep tragedian’, and ‘I will play the orator’