Discuss Shakespeare's Treatment Of Power In Richard Iii

Richard of Gloucester, later King Richard III, is a powerful character. He exercises his controlling influence over almost every other character he comes into contact with as well as on the audience or reader themselves. He is able to achieve such universal power over others through alterations to his characterization so that in different situations he can adopt a different guise and therefore be at his most effective. The way in which this switching of personas is achieved is through subtle changes in the use of spoken language and it is an important theme throughout the play that Richard is able to manipulate people and situations using nothing more than words. The action is a conscious one and Richard draws attention to it several times in his soliloquies, when saying "And thus I clothe my naked villany" he uses the metaphor of clothing to describe his use of language to disguise his true intentions. He also says "And I nothing to back my suit at all, But the plain devil and dissembling looks", drawing a contrast between his intentions, which are purely evil and his methods of achieving them, which are convoluted. His "dissembling looks" make him a slippery character not only for the other characters in the play but also for the audience as we are by turns charmed, convinced and inspired by his speech.