Richard III: Man of Misery.
Richard III is perhaps one of the most confounding of Shakespeare protagonists because of his deformities and how they play to his disadvantage and advantage throughout the play. In the opening speech of Richard III, Richard tells the audience of his deformities by saying: “But I, that am not shaped for sportive tricks / Nor made to court an amorous looking glass” (Richard III, 1.1. 14-15). Richard mentions his deformities again after wooing Queen Anne. Also, other characters such as Queen Margret, The Duchess of York, and the Young Duke of York mention his misshapenness at various points in the play mainly after Richard has committed some heinous deed. While Richard’s disability often renders him highly visible, such as after he has just murdered someone, it at the same time allows him to remain invisible especially to the other characters in the play. Richard III does not speak of his disability with other characters, but addresses the audience instead and this helps to make his deformities invisible to the other characters. However, Richard cannot completely pass as able-bodied to the other characters as his disfigurements are noticed and often ridiculed as the source of his depravity after he commits a murder. However, Richard at times wants his disability to be highly visible to the playgoer. Before Richard murders Clarence, for example, he plays up his disability by telling the audience: “And decant on mine own deformity/ And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover/ To entertain these fair well-spoken days/ I am determinèd to prove a villain” (Richard III, 1.1.27-30.). Richard III both tries to pass as able-bodied and more deformed or disabled then he really is depending on the situation. Therefore, Richard III is both trying to pass and masquerade his disability throughout the text.
Richard III in acts what is called passing and according to Brune and Wilson passing is defined in the following way: “Most often, the term refers to the way people conceal social makers of impairment to avoid the stigma of disability and pass as “normal” (Brune and Wilson, 1). Passing is often related to society’s pressures to be “normal” which Richard experiences throughout the text from his family, friends, and the society he is a part of. Titchkosky discusses that passing is largely a societal pressure brought on by society’s need for normalization of the body:
“To “become normal, “then, is to manage the appearance of any departure from the expected as an unwanted difference; to “act normally” or “to pass” means to be perceived by others as moving squarely within the realm of the expected; to “be normal” is to do what needs to be done to be taken as the expected. Thus, “abnormal” is not an objective departure from the norm; it is what is produced when a perceived difference is taken as an affront to ordinary group expectations” (Titchkosky, 132).
Richard III does not fit into the normality of the Elizabeth society. Richard often tries to pass which makes him less noticed to both the characters in the play, but at the same time he wants to make his disability highly visible to the playgoer. Richard masquerades his disability in order to make himself at times highly visible and gain the advantage his disability gives him. Tobin Siebers defines disability masquerading as: “The masquerade counteracts passing, claiming disability rather than concealing it. Exaggerating or performing difference, when difference is a stigma, marks one as a target, but it also expose and resists the prejudices of society. The masquerade fulfills the desire to tell a story steeped in disability, often the very story that society does not want to hear, by refusing to obey the ideology of ability” (118). Richard uses the disability masquerade to powerful ends as the masquerade both makes him highly visible to the audience but invisible to the other characters in the play. Siebers talks about how having a highly visible disability, like Richard’s disfigurements, makes one highly visible, but that high visibility at the same time can result in invisibility:
“Ability appears unmarked and invisible because it is the norm, while disability, as an affront to ability feels the full and persistent force of an ideological impulse to erase from view any exception to ability. Whence the desire that people with disabilities sometimes experience to overcome their invisibility and its attendant violence by exhibiting their impairments, and the paradoxical consequence that they become even more invisible and vulnerable as a result. In fact, owing to the ideology of ability, the more visible the disability, the greater the chance that the disabled person will be repressed from public view and forgotten. The masquerade shows that disability exists at the same time that it, as masquerade, does not exist”(Siebers, 103).
The above quote helps to example why many of the characters in the play treat Richard’s disability as invisible. Allison P. Hobgood discusses in her essay Teeth Before Eyes how the real King Richard III’s body was found to have scoliosis which is often a highly visible physical deformity (24). Richard’s highly visible disfigurement renders him invisible often to the characters in the play, but he masquerades and performs his disability to the audience making him highly visible to the playgoer. Richard III uses masquerade and passing to powerful ends throughout the play. The first example being at the beginning of the play.
At the beginning of Richard III, Richard describes his deformities to the audience and how he will use them as motivation to powerful ends. Richard depicts his disability at length in the following passage: “But I, that am not shaped for sportive tricks/ Nor made to court an amorous looking glass, / I, that am rudely stamped, and want love’s majesty/ To strut before a wanton ambling nymph, / I, that am curtailed of this fair proportion, / Cheated of feature by dissembling Nature,/ Deformed, unfinished, sent before my time / Into this breathing world, scarce half made up,/ And that so lamely and unfashionable” (Richard III, 1.1.14-22). In the opening speech in the play, Richard is not trying to pass as able-bodied to the audience, but is masquerading and using his disability to draw the audience to his side. Richard, as Siebers says, “claims his disability” and it makes a powerful impact and impression on the playgoer. Richard lets the audience know that his disability does not get in his way by saying, “But I, that am not shaped for sportive tricks” (Richard III 1.1.14). According to the Oxford English Dictionary “sportive” in Elizabeth times meant “Of a person or mental faculty: inclined to jesting or levity; light-hearted or playful in temperament, thought, or manner of expression”. Richard is letting the reader know that in spite of his disability he is a determined person and will succeed with his plans.
Richard further masquerades his disability and uses it to express his serious desire to be king by saying, “I, that am rudely stamped, and want love’s majesty/ To strut before a wanton ambling nymph,” (Richard III. 1.1.16-17). In the above line, Richard expresses that he has no time to be carefree because of his disability as the word wanton meant in Elizabethan times: “To pass one's time carelessly; to go idly or heedlessly”(Oxford English Dictionary). Richard is expressing that just because he has a disability does this does not mean he is weak nor careless about what he does as he is quite crafty and sly throughout the play. However, Richard is cunning and in the next few lines tries to get sympathy from the playgoer/reader: “/ I, that am curtailed of this fair proportion, / Cheated of feature by dissembling Nature,/ Deformed, unfinished, sent before my time / Into this breathing world, scarce half made up,/ And that so lamely and unfashionable”(Richard III.1.1. 18-22). The above lines could be interpreted as masquerading as Richard seems to be purposely trying to obtain sympathy from the audience/reader in order for them to see why he is adept to play the villain in the tale. The lines might be Richard trying to justify why he commits the heinous deed later in the play. However, by next scene of the play, Richard is no longer flaunting his disability, but trying to pass as able-bodied and worthy of Lady Anne.
Richard III in Act 1 scene 2 is no longer masquerading his disability, but is trying to pass as able-bodied in order to win the affections of Lady Anne. At the beginning of the scene, Lady Anne is mourning the death of her husband Henry VI whom Richard III murdered. Anne reminds Richard repeatedly of his deformities throughout the scene, but Richard continues to try and pass his as able-bodied such as in the following lines.
“O gentlemen, see, see! Dead Henry’s wounds.
Open their congealed mouths and bleed afresh.
Blush, blush, thou lump of foul deformity,
For’tis thy presence that exhales this blood…” (Richard III 1.2. 55-58).
“More wonderful, when angels are so angry.
Vouchsafe, divine perfection of a woman,
Of these supposèd crimes to give me leave
By circumstance but to acquit myself…”(Richard III 1.2. 74-77).
Richard III in the above quote is using passing as a method of protection which is something that it is often used for by people in real life and not just in the literary realm. Passing as able-bodied, in the above scene, allows Richard to convince Anne that he is not deformed and, therefore, did nothing wrong. In the above, Richard says, “Of these supposèd crimes to give me leave/ By circumstance but to acquit myself” (Richard III 1.2. 76-77): by saying this he is employing the method of trying to pass able-bodied as Anne has just accused him of being disfigured. Anne specifically points out Richard’s deformed back in the passage by saying, “Blush, blush, thou lump of foul deformity…” (Richard III 1.2. 57). This line serves to shame Richard for trying to pass and at the same time helps to point out to the audience that Richard is trying to perform as able-bodied.
Richard tries to pass as able-bodied in this scene not only to protect himself from Lady Anne’s accusations, but also try and get what he wants. Without trying to pass as non-deformed Richard would not be able to convince Lady Anne to marry him as he would seem weak and unworthy of her. He does not insert any self-pity or loathing in this scene of the play until the end when he is left alone with the audience. When Richard is done talking to Lady Anne and he is left alone he says; “Upon my life, she finds (although I cannot) / Myself to be a marvelous proper man” (Richard III, 1.2. 253-254).Richard it would seem is just trying to pass as able-bodied to Lady Anne for protections so that she will not reuse him for the evil thing he has done. At the same time, however, Richard seems to find that making his body pass as “normal” will help him not just with Lady Anne, but with his whole campaign for king, for he says; “I’ll be at charges for a looking glass / And entertain a score or two of tailors/ To study fashions to adorn my body” (Richard III, 1.2. 255-257). It would seem that Richard has changed his outlook on his body in the above lines but it is clear he is just trying to pass as able-bodied in order to obtain what he wants which is the crown. However, Richard’s passing is often discovered after he commits a heinous deed.
Richard’s passing is uncovered after he murders his nephews in order to obtain the crown. In Act 4 scene 4 of Richard III after Queen Margret, Queen Elizabeth, and The Duchess of York finish discussing the deaths of the young princes The Duchess of York reprimands Richard after he has entered the scene by saying;
“No, by the Holy Rood, thou know’st it well,
Thou cam’st on earth to make the earth my hell.
A grievous burden was thy birth to me;
Tetchy and wayward was thy infancy;
Thy schooldays frightful, desp’rate, wild, and furious;
Thy prime of manhood daring, bold, and venturous;
Thy age confirmed, proud, subtle, sly, and bloddy,
More mild, but yet more harmful, kind in hatred.
What comfortable hour canst thous name
That ever graced me with thy company”(Richard III 4.4. 166-175).
The Duchess of York in the above paragraph has seen through Richard’s efforts to hide his disability and she sees through his facade. In the above, The Duchess of York seems to be saying that Richard has never passed as able-bodied to her, for it indicates in the above passage that she has always been acutely aware of her son’s disability. However, it would seem that Richard has passed to his mother as able-bodied as she was not aware of his plans to kill his nephews. Richard III to his mother is invisible and unworthy of her attention and visibility as he will always be her deformed child that she gave birth to. Richard’s invisibility to his mother and other family members is what helps him to commit devious acts without anyone noticing. Both Richard’s passing and masquerading his disability allow him the invisibility to commit acts that will allow him to attain the crown. The disfigurement that Richard has is highly visible, but at the same time because it is so visible it allows him to appear invisible to other characters as they do notice him because of his disability. Richard’s own mother even sees him as only visible after he has murdered multiple people.
Passing and masquerading in disability theory play an important role in understanding Richard III as a character within the context of the play. Richard uses masquerading to not only get sympathy from the audience, but also as a way to make himself so highly visible that he becomes invisible because of his disability. It would also seem that Shakespeare intended Richard III deformities to be a point of contention through the play as the descriptions of Richard’s deformities do not change throughout all eight quartos and First folio editions of the play (Shakespeare). F and Q do not differ in their vague descriptions of Richard’s deformities and this is important to the text as it shows that Richard III’s deformities are important to his role as a character. Richard’s passing and masquerading add to the suspense of the play as we know things before the characters do: as the audience/reader is the only one that knows that Richard is using his deformities to get what he wants. Shakespeare seems to have wanted the audience to be the only ones to beware of how Richard really feels about his disfigurements. Shakespeare seems to have written Richard’s character and his deformities, so that they render him visible to the playgoers, but not the characters in the play and hence he is inviable and this makes it easier for him to commit heinous acts and attention the crown. Also, Richard seems to not only to implement passing in order to get what he wants, but also to protect himself from having a genuine relationship with other: which could be because his family often treat him like a pariah such as in the above excerpt with the Duchess of York. Richard III as a text and performed play exemplify what disability passing and masquerading are as well as their various complexities. Richard III as a character is certainly complex and much more than just an evil villain.
Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of King Richard the Third. Ed. Peter Holland. New York, NY: Penguin, 2000. Print.
Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of King Richard the Third. Q1 ed. London: Printed by Valentine Sims, for Andrew Wise, 1597. British Library. Web. 6 Feb. 2016.
Brune, Jeffrey A., and Daniel J. Wilson, eds. Disability and Passing: Blurring the Lines of Identity. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 2013. Print.
Hobgood, Allison P. “Teeth Before Eyes: Impairment and Invisibility in Shakespeare’s Richard III”. Disability, Health, and Happiness in the Shakespearean Body. Ed. Sujata Iyengar. New York: Routledge, 2015. Print.
Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Web. 6 Feb. 2016.
Siebers, Tobin. “Disability as Masquerade”. Disability Theory. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan, 2008. Print.
Titchkosky, Tanya. “Normal”. Keywords for Disability Studies. Ed. Rachel Adams, Benjamin Reiss, and David Serlin. New York: New York UP, 2015. Print.
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