Deformity and Behavior in Richard III

Deformity and Behavior in Richard III

Daniel Paek

ENG331H1
Professor: Matthew Sergi
Sunday February 23, 2014
999058433

            In Richard III, Richard's disfigurement gives him agency through manipulation and meanings of his form. However, in "Enabling Richard: The Rhetoric of Disability in Richard III", Katherine Schaap Williams claims that Richard's "manipulations of its negative associations does not finally dismiss them, even though he uses them to his advantage." (9) In essence, he argues that Richard, no matter how well he is able to act and deceive, cannot get rid of the fact that he is deformed and thus, is indeed a villain by nature. However, this paper will argue that the play does not imply the relationship between deformity and behaviour to be static. As Richard's clever deceptions and use of rhetoric endlessly redefine the meaning of his deformity, he is able to freely control the associations to his body. By looking at ways and degrees in which Richard demonstrates control over interpretations of his body, this paper will assert that since his body has no concrete form, it thereby has no concrete meaning. To the audience, the characters of the play, and even Richard himself, the way his body is construed is determined not by appearance, but by his words alone.

            As  Richard is shown to be capable of accomplishing tasks that any able-bodied men are able to do--which includes being able to woo females--it brings to question whether Richard was truly "determined to prove a villain" (1.1.30) since he cannot "prove a lover" (1.1.28). When he seduces Anne to be his lover, he is able to do so despite her grudge for her slain loved ones and her disdain for his obvious deformity. At first, Anne depicts him in ways that align similarly with how Richard had described himself in the opening soliloquy of the play, calling him a "foul lump of deformity" (1.2.55) and a "diffused infection of a man." (1.2.76) However, by the end of the scene, she is left unsure of what to think of Richard as he smothers her with affectionate words.  Anne calls Richard a "dissembler" (1.2.170-180) shortly afterwards, which shows how she is no longer able to rely on her perception of his character through his appearance alone. While she realizes that Richard is hiding something, she is unable to determine if Richard's proposal is fake. As she allows Richard to make contact by letting him put a ring onto her finger, she is evidently no longer disgusted by his body. The atmosphere becomes rather intimate and flirtatious, which Anne could not have imagined possible to share with the monstrous Richard. For a moment at least, Richard is successfully able to fulfill the role of a lover under the most strenuous circumstances. With words alone, Richard is able to transform the perceptions of his body, demonstrating that he can freely choose to wear and remove the monster's skin whenever he pleases.  

            While Anne and Margaret continuously refer to Richard with monstrous images, Hastings initially depicts Richard's appearance in a positive light, associating his body with qualities that you would find in good able-bodied men. He claims to the lords and cousins during the Council:

            "His grace looks cheerfully and smooth today;

            There's some conceit or other likes him well

            When he doth bid good morrow with such a spirit.

            I think there is never a man in Christendom

            Can lesser hide his love or hate than he;

            For by his face straight shall you know his heart." (3.4.53-58)

These qualities that Hastings points out heavily contrasts with the way Richard has been described both by himself and the women throughout the play. Hastings assumes Richard to possess a trustworthy demeanor and becomes confident in his ability to interpret Richard's thoughts by his appearance alone. By doing so, Hastings falsifies the supposed relationship between appearance and behavior, as his interpretations were utterly betrayed by Richard. Only when Richard chooses to redefine his body does Hastings see him as a deformed, monstrous man. As Williams points out, Richard "draws attention to his body, telling his audience what to see and, crucially, what the sight should mean." (7) So, as Richard claims, "Then be your eyes the witness of their evil / Look how I am bewitched! Behold mine arm / Is like a blasted sapling withered up" (3.4.67-69)", he once again plays the role of a dissembler like he did with Anne. However, what he hides from the others this time is not the monster, but his human appearance.

            As Williams points out, Richard  is aware of the fact that he can "employ his body to distract from the logic of his actions; in fact, he imagines his capacity to adorn himself and fit the social image of the "proper man" that he previously denied."(6)  However, the play suggests a growing sense of self-division, where Richard ultimately does not perform, but actually lives and assimilates the roles that he plays as a part of himself. This is first evident in Richard's soliloquy that follows after wooing Anne. He claims, "Upon my life, she finds, although I cannot, / Myself to be a marvellous proper man." (1.2.238-239), which may seem, as Williams points out, merehis way of enacting merely "the possibilities of clothing to accent his fitness for public view."(6) He glees on about the fact that he is able to act the marvellous gentleman through rhetoric. However, as Richard proclaims, "Shine out, fair sun, till I have bought a glass, / That I may see my shadow as I pass" (1.2.246-247), the idea that he may be expanding his identity beyond a 'deformed villain' is brought to light. He refers back to his first soliloquy in Act 1 Scene 1 where he claims, "Unless to see my shadow in the sun / And descant on mine own deformity." (1.1.26-27) However, the difference is what Richard sees in his shadow. During that moment of glee, what Richard sees is not a deformed and ugly man, but rather, the marvellous proper man that Anne has made him out to be. This self-division is most shown in his final soliloquy in Act 5 Scene 3, where Richard starts out of his dream:

            "O coward conscience, how dost thou afflict me! [...]

            What do I fear? Myself? There's none else by.

            Richard loves Richard; that is, I and I.

            Is there a murderer here? No. Yes, I am.

            Then fly. What, from myself?"  (5.3.178-184)

In this soliloquy, the shadow which Richard marvelled at clearly assumes the role of the second "I". According to Queen Margaret, what Richard lacks, which is the "worm of conscience" (1.3.219) in his soul, is what makes him the deformed monster that he is. Conscience, then, is something that good,  able-bodied men possess. Richard, who was so sure of being an unfeeling villain due to his deformed body being without conscience by nature, is shown to be subject to his rhetoric as much as anyone else. Richard's shrewd demonstrations of rhetorical power have changed even his own perceptions about himself.

            Thus, while Williams' belief that Richard  employs rhetorical power and performative ability to compensate for a bodily form marked with negative associations is true, the notion that Richard is ultimately stuck with his deformity is questionable. Through rhetoric, Richard is able to appear to possess the qualities of both the able-bodied and deformed. Through words, Richard is able to construct images of his body for the characters, audience, and even himself, reality.

Works Cited

 Williams, Katherine S. “Enabling Richard: The Rhetoric of Disability in Richard

            III.” Disability Studies Quarterly 29, 2009. Web. 14 Feb. 2014. <http://dsq-

sds.org/article/view/997/1181>.

Shakespeare, William, Peter Holland, and Stephen Orgel. The Tragedy of King Richard the Third.            New York, NY: Penguin, 2000. Print.