The Effect of Trauma on Richard: Comparing Speech Patterns and Punctuation to Unveil the Conscience Persona

Andreea Marin

ENG331H1S

The Effect of Trauma on Richard: Comparing Speech Patterns and Punctuation to Unveil the Conscience Persona

            In his essay “Toward an Early Modern Theory on Trauma: Conscience in Richard III,” Zackariah C. Long compares the early Christian personification of the conscience and the modern psychology understanding of trauma (Long, 50). When comparing the two, Long makes the case that both conscience and trauma differ from ordinary memory in that they contain “comprehensive, permanent and unerringly accurate” records and they are “endowed with a degree of independent agency...to ‘follow’ man” (Long, 51). Some people, Long argues, have a dormant conscience which eventually “will awaken and its delay [will] only make its accusations more terrible” (Long, 53). When applying the ‘conscience-trauma theory’ on the character Richard in William Shakespeare’s Richard III, Long focuses on the nightmare preceding the Battle of Bosworth when Richard is visited by the ghosts whose Earthly bodies Richard was a primary participant in killing. This nightmare, according to Long, is the unleashing of the dormant conscience or the effect of trauma. Long writes that “Richard hears for the first time the voice of his conscience speaking from within. It consolidates the many voices of the ghosts into a single persona that addresses Richard as an autonomous presence—as  though it were ‘another person within’—even as Richard simultaneously experiences as part of himself” (Long, 66). To deepen Long’s theory and to explore Shakespeare craft, I will argue that the conscience is in fact a different persona, or “another person within” by examining Richard’s first soliloquy and the one immediately following his nightmare. At both moments Richard is alone, yet the first he is presented at his ‘purest’ within the play and the latter is immediately after his conscience is awakened. By looking at the punctuation within the text, sentence length and speech patterns it will become evident that Richard is not the same person when he awakens from his nightmare, but rather, the one speaking is the conscience-persona.

In Richard’s first soliloquy[1] seven sentences are evenly spread out over the course of 41 lines. Each sentence contains on average 34 words (or five-six lines) the shortest containing nine words (two lines). The commas are evenly spread as a means of a calming pause and there are 15 lines containing enjambment, carrying one thought fluidly over to the next line. The Richard we are introduced to in this first scene is an architect and a strategist. He is very aware of the time, putting emphasis on “now” several times and his sentences contain plans and concrete definition of the self such as “I am determined,” or “plots I have laid” (I.i. 30-32).  Without even noting at the vocabulary[2] he uses, however, looking at the pace of his speech and the equal division of his sentences, Richard comes across as a coherent, composed, and systematic character. By separating the seven sentences according to content one can see Richard’s systematic speech structure (even when he is alone): beginning with the present political state, the Yorkist response to it, what led up to present events, Richard’s opinion of (him)self, the plans given this definition of self and what plans he has already set in motion. This soliloquy presents a person aware of who he is, why he is there, what must be done, and when: ‘now’. It is also noteworthy that this first soliloquy contains absolutely no question marks expressing self doubt (especially in a soliloquy). In addition, the only exclamation[3] point is inserted at the very end coinciding with Clarence’s entrance suggesting the urgency to become alert.

            In the second soliloquy (V.III.178-207) Richard’s speech patterns no longer align with the person we were introduced to in Act I Scene I. The changes between the two are not slight which exposes what Zackariah Long refers to as “the single persona...another person within” (Long, 66). Within 30 lines (11 lines less than the last soliloquy) there are 33 sentences[4]. The shortest sentence is one word and almost each line contains two sentences. Most importantly, there are four exclamation points and eight question marks. Considering Richard is alone, the question marks suggest that he no longer possesses self-assurance and questions himself. Long mentions that the “result [of trauma/conscience] is an internalized stichomythia in which Richard wrestles with the implications of his newfound discovery that he is not, in fact ‘myself alone’” (Long, 66). Within this soliloquy Richard mentions “now” only to point the present time “now is the dead of midnight” (line 181) rather than pointing to a space-time when action can be carried through.  Keeping in mind the punctuation was intended in Shakespeare’s time as a means to indicate pauses when read aloud, one can imagine the character speaking this soliloquy (with 27 commas and 33 short sentences), as anxious and disturbed. Comparing this neurotic speech pattern of rapid, short sentences with the systematic, evenly spread out sentences in the first soliloquy, one can see that the two do not align nor do they contain even the slightest similarity. Should one have been presented solely with the punctuation of the two soliloquies[5] one would hardly conclude that the two are the same person. Thus, the one speaking in Scene V is the conscience-persona not the plan-driven Gloucester.

            One could argue against the conscience-persona theory as a result of trauma by pointing out that Richard knew what he was doing the whole time and the ghosts should not have stirred emotion within him as there was no repression or element of surprise. Long explains in his essay that a “dead conscience...indicates that an individual may sin in ignorance” and as we have seen Richard is certainly not ignorant. What is certain is that conscience/trauma will affect even the most vile indirectly “in intense and overwhelming emotions such as terror or helplessness ...[when] even sleep can provide no respite” (Long, 54-6). The Battle of Bosworth can be seen as that moment of intensity in which Richard’s conscience-persona is awakened simply because Richard is aware that he could be killed. Evidently, the speech patterns and punctuation in the second soliloquy point that the one speaking is clearly not Richard but an awakened conscience and it is only because Richard knew what he had done and was not ignorant of his actions that the conscience could have been awakened.
Appendix A

Works Cited
Millward, C.M., and Mary Hayes. A Biography of the English Language. 3rd ed. . Boston:
        Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2012. 258. Print.
Long, Zackariah C. "Toward an Early Modern Theory of Trauma: Conscience in Richard III."
       Journal of Literature and Trauma Studies. 1.1 (Spring 2012): 49-72. Print.
Shakespeare, William. Richard III. New York: Penguin Books, 2000. Print.

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[1] The text I will be referring to is the Pelican Shakespeare (edited by Peter Holland, 2000) for two reasons. The first being that the introduction to the text states that “the plays which appeared in Shakespeare’s life time show no signs of any editorial concern on the part of the author” and the “editors of this particular copy have revisited the 1^st Quarto, 2^nd Quarto and the Folio” (xxviii). The editor assures his readers that “Shakespeare always had a performance, not a book, in mind” (xxvii). The second reason for the selection of this particular text when assessing punctuation is that “EMnE punctuation was primarily rhetorical in purpose; that is, it was used to point out balance and parallelism or to indicate pauses for breath when the lines were read aloud (as in dramatic works)” (Millward and Hayes, 258). Having examined the 1^st Quarto, Folio and the Norton edition myself, I can attest that punctuation does not differ greatly between these texts and the Pelican has taken greater editorial emphasising the theatrical qualities of the text.

[2] Pointed out in this case to expose the ways in which the content and defining qualities of the vocabulary does in fact match the grammar.

[3] Not present in the Norton nor in the 1^st Quarto.

[4] In the Norton there are 38 sentences. Though it is only a 5 sentence difference between two editions it is still a grandiose difference between Richard’s first and last soliloquy.

[5] see Appendix A on page 5