Richard III Rhetorical Analysis

If heaven have any grievous plague in store

Exceeding those that I can wish upon thee,

O, let them keep it till thy sins be ripe

And then hurl down that indignation

On thee, the troubler of the poor world's peace!

The worm of conscience still begnaw thy soul!

Thy friends suspect for traitors while thou liv'st,

And take deep traitors for thy dearest friends!

No sleep close up that deadly eye of thine,

Unless it be while some tormenting dream

Affrights thee with a hell of ugly devils!

Thou elvish marked, abortive, rooting hog!

Thou that was seal'd in thy nativity

The slave of nature and the son of hell!

Thou slander of they heavy mothers womb!

Thou loathed issue of thy fathers loins!

Thou rag of honor!

(Richard III, I, iii, 216-232)

In Shakespeare's Richard III Queen Margaret is not cast as a great person. She has endured great personal tragedy and has not come through it unscathed. She does not blame her misfortune on the nature of war or kings, but on a single individual named Richard. Through cursing Richard Margaret becomes the living consequence of civil war between members of the same royal family. She is angry or bitter over the harm that has been done to her and she directs that vitriol towards a single individual. She wants vengeance for her pain to the extent that she wants to have precedence over God's punishment. She does not feel any responsibility for her current state in life, and does does see any way she could better her life but through the punishment of Richard, the apparent source of her pain. She feels justified in this response as she was the victim of his violence. No thought of forgiveness or acceptance seems to enter her mind. Her character is simple but powerful. She is a symbol of consequence or repercussion. She foreshadows what will happen as the civil war continues, more broken families will be left to hate their fellow survivors. Her curses are even predictive. She speaks of his conscience, which we learn has or will be pricked through some of his monologues. She speaks of his friends leaving him, and him dealing with his friends treacherously, both will happen. She speaks of his nightmares and he will be visited by the ghosts of those he murders.

Her anger and bitterness towards Richard is evident through the list of insults near the end of her curse (accumilatio and anaphora). These insults grow in potency and she keeps adding the list. It starts of calling him “elvish marked” (227), which implies a magical force had made him evil so it may not be entirely his fault. She also compares him to a “rooting hog” (227), an animal, again denying some aspect of intelligence or choice in his actions (metaphor). She continues this theme of his lack of choice saying he was “seal'd” (228) “the slave of nature and the son of hell” (229), he did not seal himself but was sealed. She almost seems to be excusing him, except this excuse is one more insult. He is not even capable of controlling his own life, that is how weak and powerless he really is. He is only a tool for others. She finishes this list of insults with very personal ones. She claims he is the “slander”, or that he slanders his mother, by coming from her “heavy womb” (230). His very existence remarks badly on his mother. She also calls him the “loathed issue” of his “fathers loins” (231) implying even his father did not love him. This list of increasingly personal insults evidences Margaret deep anger and bitterness towards Richard.

Margaret's great need for vengeance from Richard is shown the the language and nature of the actual curses she wishes upon him (ara). She begins her curses by saying “the worm of conscience” (Prosopopoeia) implying that she thinks some small piece of conscience is living deep in his soul. However she wishes it to “begnaw [his] soul” (221). She does not curse him to remember crime and become better, but to have his soul destroyed. She wants punishment not rehabilitation (emphasis). The structure of the next curse follows a chiasmus type pattern, as it begin and end with the same object. She curses his friends to be “suspect[ed] for traitors” by him (222) while he “take[s] deep traitors” (223) for his friends. She wants him to betray his friends and be betrayed by his friends. Again these are wishes of a vengeful person, she does not want him to change to be better but to be destroyed in his wickedness. The final curse that “no sleep close up that deadly eye” (224) because she does not want him to rest easily. She extends this to “unless . . . some tormenting dream / affrights thee” (225-226) where she allows for some sleep, as long as he has nightmares while sleeping. She finishes this with specifically calling for nightmares of a “hell of ugly devils” (226) (ominatio). These three curses are the curses of vengeance not justice. Margaret does not want life to be fair or for Richard to be forced to pay back society for his crimes. She wishes him misery and pain. She is a vengeful person.

Margaret has had many tragedies in her life and this has caused her to feel victimized. She does not feel any personal responsibility for her current life or more importantly her current attitude. She feels completely justified in her anger and desire for vengeance. As she begins her curse Margaret references heaven and its curses. She says “if heaven have any grievous plague” (216) implying that it obviously does, and it is “exceeding those that I can wish” (217) then “let them keep it till thy sins be ripe” (218) (metaphor). She wants her curses to take effect first. She claims precedence over heaven. She is the victim of Richards injustice and has first claim on his punishment. She hopes and wants heaven to punish him too, but only after she has completed her curses. Due to her status as a victim she feels justified in seeking personal vengeance before any other punishments might be administered to Richard.

Margaret is a simple character. She fits a type and is not an individual or well rounded character. She is introduced early in the play and is used to show the consequences of the action that happen before the play started, and the future of the characters actions in the play. She is Shakespeare’s judgment and critique of the civil war among this royal family. He added her into the story for this purpose. She shows both the characters of the play and the readers how easily vengeance comes for violence and how cyclical this pattern can become.