Essay - Lying Shakespeare's Historical Plays, Richard III and Henry IV are...

lying

Shakespeare's historical plays, Richard III and Henry IV are both centered around very important political figures- Richard III and Henry IV. The ***** have as characters two of the most famous villains in Shakespe*****'s theatre: ***** III, formerly the Duke of Gloucester, and Falstaff, pr*****ce Hal's friend. Both characters are known for ********** extreme lack ***** morality, although they are very different in other ways: Richard ***** is Shakespeare's absolute villa*****- a duke who, driven by his immeasurable ambition, commits a gre*****t number of crimes so as to obtain the crown of the kingdom. Falstaff, on the other h*****, is more like a jester, known for ***** great witticism, but at the same time, a gre***** dissembler who always lies, steals or cheats on somebody else.

Richard III uses lying, dissembling and plotting in almost all his actions, and therefore, he is likened many times by the other characters, to the devil himself. This is certainly ***** c*****e in the way Richard manages to tempt lady Anne, the widow of king Edward IV, in spite of the fact that she knew he was the murderer of both her husband and her husband's father:

Was ever woman in this humour woo'd?/Was ever woman in this ***** won?/I'll have her; but I will not keep her long./What! I that kill'd her husband and his father-/ To take her in her heart's extremest hate,/With curses ***** her mouth, tears in her eyes,/"The bleed*****g witness of my hatred by[...]"(Richard III, 1.2.253-259)

Thus, the ***** of Gloucester becomes a king through a series ***** murders but *****lso through much lying ***** dissembling constantly imitating the works of the devil himself. All his morally unjustifiable acts help him ascend to ***** throne and become a powerful political leader. He smoothes ***** path towards power by killing all those who might be an obstacle to him, and in this, his ly*****g ********** him greatly, as it builds up the blind trust in him of his future victims. Therefore, ly*****g and ***** can be considered ***** of the most important skills required for ***** success ***** quick ascension to power.

However, this ascension is very short lived, as Shakespeare proves in his play. Richard III is soon overthrown and killed, as the people begin ***** understand the terrible ***** behind Richard's acts. The pol*****ical power gained ***** lying and crimes becomes problematic because it impinges on most of ***** moral laws that men in general respect. Eventually, Richard ***** proves a b*****d liar, although at first he is intelligent enough to deceive a gre***** number of *****. He is cert*****inly a skilled and brilliant speaker and many of his speec*****s are monologues directed ***** the audience itself, and thus, ***** manages to create a double effect: Richard ***** to deceive and f*****cinate the o*****r characters in the *****, ***** tries his spell on the specta*****rs and readers as well. His first speech, which also opens the play, already shows ***** as a victim himself, because of his