Series 11
Richard III
h
A
RY
10t
T
he great English Elizabethan
playwright William Shakespeare is
renowned for creating rich, complex
characters in his plays. But some
of his most interesting creations
are his villains. Some are evil incarnate, cruel,
vengeful and beyond redemption. Others seem
to be victims of their own excessive desires. In
some cases, Shakespeare redeems his villains; in
others, they get what they deserve.
C
SS M A
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E
Shakespeare’s
thetelegraph.com.au/classmate
And therefore, since I
cannot prove a lover,
To entertain these fair
well-spoken days,
I am determined to
prove a villain
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w
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Did you know?
The Macbeths
Richard III
In the play Macbeth, the Thane (a Scottish nobleman) of Glamis is a
general in the army of King Duncan. After a battle he is accosted by
witches who call him Thane of Cawdor and tell him he will be “king
hereafter’’. He doesn’t believe them until a messenger from the king
arrives to say that the former Thane of Cawdor has been executed and
Macbeth now has the title. He tells his wife, Lady Macbeth, who tells
him to aspire to be king. Macbeth murders Duncan, becoming king.
But the couple are soon tortured by their consciences and driven to
other murders to cover their tracks and keep power. Lady Macbeth
commits suicide and King Macbeth is killed in single combat. The
play is a story of a man and his wife who are driven to dark deeds
by their ambition, but who are troubled to the point of madness
by what they have done to achieve power.
One of Shakespeare’s most entertaining bad guys is Richard III, based on the
actual King Richard. Shakespeare depicts him as a deformed, vengeful, yet often
charming villain. In his opening speech Richard, initially Duke of Gloucester,
reveals his feelings of ambition, jealousy and vengeance. He feels that since
he is “rudely stamped’’ – hunchbacked and club-footed – he is unlikely to ever
be a lover, so he is “determined to prove a villain’’. He plots to become king,
by murdering those who stand between him and marrying Lady Anne, whose
father and husband he has already murdered to improve his fortunes and his
claim to the throne. He enjoys the quest for power. At one point he comments
that he can “murder whiles I smile’’. But his time as king is short-lived. He makes
too many enemies and is killed in the final battle, crying out that he will trade his
“kingdom for a horse’’. The real Richard was neither deformed nor as heartless
and ambitious as Shakespeare’s character, but may have been the victim of Tudor
propaganda. Shakespeare lived under a Tudor monarch and it had been a Tudor
prince who had defeated Richard to become the first of a new dynasty.
David James
playing Don
John (left) and
James Wardlaw
playing Borachio
in a 1996
production of
Much Ado About
Nothing
Aaron the Moor
Iago
Laurence Fishburne as Othello (left)
and Kenneth Branagh as Iago in the 1996 film Othello
In the play Othello The Moor Of Venice, the Venetian general Othello, a
“blackamoor’’ or dark-skinned person, finds an enemy in fellow officer Iago.
Othello has passed over Iago for promotion to the position of his lieutenant and
Iago’s prejudices against blacks come out. He plots to discredit Cassio, the man
appointed Othello’s lieutenant, by making Othello think that his wife Desdemona
has been having an affair with Cassio. On flimsy evidence, Othello believes that
Desdemona has been cheating. Iago’s revenge has tragic consequences when
Othello murders his wife and then commits suicide. Iago is arrested for his part in
the murder but he refuses to explain the motives for his villainy. Iago is one of the
most perplexing of Shakespeare’s evil-doers.
In the play Titus Andronicus, the noble Roman Titus makes
an enemy of Tamora, queen of the Goths, by sending her
son to be sacrificed as revenge for the Romans who have
died. Tamora’s lover, Aaron the Moor, devises methods
of making Titus and the Romans suffer for Tamora’s loss.
He spurs the Romans on to murder, rape and even selfmutilation, until Titus, Tamora and the emperor Saturninus
are dead, leaving Titus’s son Lucius as emperor. As Aaron
heads to his execution, he says: “I am no baby, I, that with
base prayers I should repent the evils I have done: Ten
thousand worse than ever yet I did would I perform, if
I might have my will; If one good deed in all my life I did,
I do repent it from my very soul.’’
n The real Macbeth was in most respects nothing
like the bloodthirsty king of Shakespeare. He did not
murder his cousin Duncan to take the throne, but
defeated Duncan in battle in 1040. He then reigned
for more than a decade before he was forced to
cede the southern part of Scotland to Malcolm in
1054 and was killed by Duncan in battle in 1057. His
stepson Lulach was placed on the throne but he was
murdered in 1058 and Malcolm became king.
n Macbeth has been reinterpreted many times, on
stage and on film. In the film version Joe Macbeth
he is portrayed as a gangster; in a BBC Shakespeare
Retold TV version he is an ambitious chef. An
Australian film version starred Sam Worthington
as a drug lord, complete with a leather kilt for the
final duel with Macduff.
n Iago was based on a character known simply as
the ensign from the 1564 Italian story Un Capitano
Moro (The Moorish Captain) by Giovanni Battista
Giraldi Cinthio. Supposedly based on a real incident
in Venice in 1508, it tells how an ensign lusts after
a character named Disdemona and is ordered to
murder her by her Moorish husband who is also his
captain. They make it look like an accident but
the Moor is later arrested and executed for the
murder while the ensign avoids prosecution.
Tybalt
Romeo And Juliet does not have a traditional
villain, in that there is not an individual
evil person keeping the two lovers apart
and bringing about their tragic demise.
However, Juliet’s cousin Tybalt revels
in the violence between his family, the
Capulets, and Romeo’s clan, the Montagues.
In a confrontation with Romeo’s cousin
Benvolio, he says: “What? Drawn and you
talk of peace? I hate the word as I hate
hell, all Montagues, and thee. Have at thee,
coward!’’ When Tybalt kills the duke’s son
and Romeo’s best friend Mercutio, Romeo
is prompted to an act of vengeance that
dooms his love for Juliet.
Don John
Much Ado About Nothing is mostly a comedy but one with a very dark streak.
Don John, the younger “bastard’’ brother of Don Pedro, seethes about being the
less-favoured brother but also seems to relish being sullen and nasty. He also says
that is his nature and he will not change. He says: “Though I cannot be said to be
a flattering honest man, it must not be denied but I am plain-dealing villain.’’ He
plots to tear apart the lovers Claudio and Hero, by putting about rumours that
Hero has been seeing other men. His plan is eventually thwarted and he is arrested
but to the end he is unrepentant.
A scene from the 1996 film Romeo + Juliet
Sam Worthington plays the lead in
the 2006 film version of Macbeth
Cassius
In Julius Caesar, Cassius is a manipulator who is the main instigator
of a conspiracy against Caesar, but he urges others to do the dirty
work. Caesar says: “Yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look. He thinks
too much: such men are dangerous.’’ After
the assassination he loses control of the
plot he started, submitting to Brutus
and failing to do anything about the
ideologically driven bad decisions.
There is some redemption when he
believes his friend Titinius is dead,
saying: “Come down, behold no
more. O, coward that I am, to live
so long, To see my best friend ta’en
before my face!’’ He asks his servant
to kill him, using the sword he used
to kill Caesar. He dies saying: “Caesar,
thou art revenged, Even with the
sword that kill’d thee.”
Shakespeare
For free teacher
resources visit
thetelegraph.com.au/classmate
Claudius
Kevin Spacey performs
a scene from William
Shakespeare’s Richard III
at the Old Vic Theatre
in London’s West End
Evil siblings in
Shakespeare
Shakespeare has a theme of nastiness between
brothers in many of his plays. In As You Like It,
Frederick usurps his brother Duke Senior and has exiled
his brother to a forest. In the same play, Orlando is
persecuted by an older brother. By the play’s end, both
brothers express regret for their actions and reconcile.
In The Tempest, the duke Prospero has been overthrown
and banished to an island by his brother Antonio. The
island is enchanted and, using magic powers,
Prospero causes
Rosalind and Frederick (Alison Bell and Trevor
Jamieson) in Belvoir’s new production of As You Like It
the duke’s ship to be stranded on the island, eventually
bringing about a reconciliation. In King Lear, Edmund,
bastard son of the Duke of Gloucester, causes his
brother Edgar to be disgraced and his father to be
blinded. By the end of the play, Edmund, dying from
a wound inflicted by Edgar, regrets his actions. But in
Much Ado About Nothing, Don John, illegitimate brother
of Don Pedro, never repents of the mischief he causes
(see Don John), nor does Claudius ever really repent
of murdering his brother King Hamlet (see Claudius).
There is “something rotten in the state of Denmark’’
in Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. The Prince of Denmark,
Hamlet, is told by the ghost of his father, Hamlet senior,
that he was murdered by Hamlet’s uncle Claudius. The
usurping uncle has then married Hamlet’s mother,
Gertrude, to secure his claim to the throne. Hamlet
wants revenge but cannot decide how it should be done.
Claudius fears his plot has been discovered but never
regrets what he has done. Even when he tries to repent
in prayer, his repentance is insincere and he remarks
that “words without thoughts never to heaven go’’. To
cover his crime, he tries to have Hamlet poisoned while
matching swords with Laertes, the son of Polonius
whom Hamlet has accidentally slain, believing him to
be Claudius. Gertrude drinks the poison intended for
Hamlet. In the end, Hamlet slays Claudius but is himself
killed by a poisoned blade.
Kenneth Branagh as Hamlet and Kate Winslet
as Ophelia in the 1997 film Hamlet
Sources & further study
Books:
Chambers Dictionary Of Literary Characters, edited by
Una McGovern (Chambers)
The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works (Bloomsbury)
DVD:
Royal Shakespeare Company Production of Hamlet
(ABC DVD)
Macbeth, starring Sam Worthington (Revolver DVD)
Reference:
Encyclopaedia Britannica
On stage:
Julius Caesar, Sydney Playhouse, until November 26
Richard III, Lyric Theatre, The Star, December 1-10
As You Like It, Belvoir Street Theatre, upstairs,
November 19-December 24
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Email [email protected] Phone 9288 2542
Editor: Troy Lennon
Graphics: Paul Leigh and Will Pearce