Richard the III - Personal Reflection

Richard is the type of character that makes his audience uncomfortable. He epitomizes all that is horrible and is personified in human form. He kills his brother, murders his wife, manipulates his niece into marriage, and the most vile and disturbing act of all, he was the soul that organized the slaughtering of two innocent children. The scariest aspect of all these atrocious events is that Richard is never the one doing the actual killing; he is the mastermind behind every evil and disgusting plan.

Richard's hands are soaked in sin from his dirty deeds, but he is not guilty of carrying out of the murders; he was not even around when the actual murders were transpiring. The fact that he was capable of persuading enough people to go along with his maniacal plans is incredibly unsettling. The people Richard would hire to carry out his wishes were well aware of his evil interior and his motives; however, due to their own selfish greed or self preservation, they would cooperate with Richard for fear of what he do to them and their family if he found out that they held a guilty conscious and were unable to fulfill their duty.

When people would turn against Richard and object to his requests, he would have them terminated; regardless of their status and role in society. Buckingham was with him almost the entire way to his quest to kingship, but once he rejected Richard's plans, Richard had him eradicated, along with the rest. He was not going to allow any single person to interfere with his aspirations, and murder and death were not matters of concern to him, as long as he was the one determining who would be decimated; his life and his ambitions were the top priority.

Even civilians were capable of recognizing that Richard was up to no good and was starting to make trouble in the neighborhood and it was not just one little fight where his mom got scared and sent him to live with his auntie and uncle in bel-air; but instead his desire to destruct London to become king was overwhelming and extremely evident to the most simple minded townsfolk. Evil triumphs when good people do nothing, and that is what occurred during Richard the III. They were warned by Lady Margaret that he was nothing but pure evil, but they decided to cast her off as a bewildered mad woman. Then when they would finally realize that Margaret's words were true, it was always too late and Richard would win yet another battle.

Ambition and power are tempting aspects; however, how far is one man willing to go to attain them; and how come it took such a long time for people to stand together and make a change when they knew what was happening was wrong?