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Richard is the youngest of the three surviving sons of the duke of York. He is also one of Shakespeare’s most remarkable and disturbing creations. Marked by physical abnormalities including a hunched back, a disabled leg, and an underdeveloped arm, Richard has been viewed from birth as something of a monster, born under inauspicious stars. His disabilities have therefore marked him as an outsider, leading him to become a bitter young man who sees no future for himself other than one where he holds all the power. His outsider status enables him to view politics and society with a cold objectivity that gives him an enormous strategic advantage over his more emotional brothers. He reveals his plan to work against Edward in soliloquies that are as chilling in their content as they are remarkable in their language. He is by far the most gifted speaker in the play, his only rival being Queen Margaret. Though Richard’s schemes don’t yet unfold in this play, his murder of Henry in the final act may be taken as the official inauguration of his plot. At that point he renounces all ties and declares himself a man alone.
Richard is a character fashioned after the Vice figure of medieval religious dramas, a witty and engaging character who embodied the principle of evil. Richard also evokes Niccolò Machiavelli, a fifteenth-century Italian political philosopher most known in England as an advocate of ruthless political cunning. This draws an association to the figure of the stage Machiavel, a character who, like the Vice figure, embodied the hypocrisy attributed to modern political schemers. While Richard shares affinities with both these characters, he is not fully either. He seems to represent what happens when the identifying ties are disrupted, giving birth to the alienated individual. Richard also epitomizes the deforming effects of ambition. Hence, Richard’s physical disabilities raise curious questions. Is his outward appearance a marker of his corrupt inner being? Or is his outward appearance a cause (or excuse) for his behavior? Either way, he is a psychologically troubled and troubling individual whose monstrosity is on full view in the later play Richard III. Shakespeare previews the reign of terror to come through the prophecy Henry delivers just prior to his murder. As he puts it: “Teeth hadst thou in thy head when thou wast born, / To signify thou cam’st to bite the world” (5.6.53–54).
