Post date: Mar 5, 2017 7:08:04 PM
I had the chance to see Richard III live at the Shakespeare theater in Chicago last semester and again in the BBC adaptation over Winter Break. I preferred the live version so much more compared to the Benedict Cumberbatch one. One, Ben does not scream Richard to me, he just doesn't, he's too tall and known to me that I couldn't separate the actor from the character. And two, the live version's Richard had such a range of emotions. He reveled in his villainy and trickery but the ending really got me. It made me pity Richard, mourn who he had become, and mourn all those dead.
Because I got the chance to see Richard III, I realized how important dreams are within the play to foreshadow events and show the active role the dead play in deciding the future. Obviously Shakespeare is writing this a century later, allowing him to know how things play out, but at the same time using dreams to allude to the audience and the characters of what is to come is such an interesting way to create tension. Dreams bridge the gap between the land of the dead and the land of the living. Therefore they are the only way the dead can influence and interact with those still alive. We first see this with Clarence's dream that he describes as "Gloucester stumbled, and in falling struck me, that thought to stay him, overboard into the tumbling billows of the main. O Lord, methought what pain it was to drown" (1.iv.19-22). Which alludes to Clarence's death because Richard, having succumbed to villainy, decided to kill him to stir up chaos in the Court of Edward IV. It also alludes to the drowning in a butt of malmsey. Later in the dream Clarence is visited by shades like his father-in-law Warwick and Edward son of Henry VI. Both called him "false" and "perjured." Clarence is tormented by those he betrayed and killed - those who supported the Lancasters. In this, it is established that Clarence will die and his accusers, his enemies, await him in hell to torment him
Similarly, we see threatening dreams enter Richard's sleep before the Battle at Bosworth. The ghosts of Edward, son of Henry VI, Henry VI himself, Clarence, Rivers, Grey, Vaughan, Richard's nephews, Hastings, Lady Anne, and Buckingham - they all visit Richard condemning him and telling him to "despair and die". Richard also had a hand in all of their deaths. With this, it's established that Richard is haunted by these deaths but also that because of this, he will fail tomorrow at battle. They give him uneasy sleep, a guilty conscience, and a preoccupied mind. Henry is also visited by these same ghosts, but they all create peace for Henry's sleep, telling him to "live and flourish" and that they are behind him in this coming battle. Shakespeare allows the dead to have a final say and through the power the dead have on the living, Shakespeare establishes victory for Henry while creating Richard's downfall simultaneously.
Dreams allow the audience to see the into the minds of various characters, but they also allow foresight and give reason for events that are to come. It shows that the events are divinely willed or at least willed by the spirits. By showing that the dead want Henry to live and win, Shakespeare gives them power but also gives reason for the way events play out. It allows the dead to get revenge and influence on the world of the living. Death is not separate from life, but just another form someone can take. The dead aren't just spiritual guides or a remembered individual, they are instigators.