Role Of Women In Richard III

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manifestations. William Shakespeare chose to take dramatic license with the women's roles in the play Richard III. He used their personality traits to portray things to the audience that he wanted to be know and he took them out of the role of strength up front and cast them instead as strong women in the end.
At the first pass in studying the women in the life of Richard III they are seemingly quiet and unthinking. This is evidenced by many of the scenes between Elizabeth and Richard III himself. Elizabeth is often portrayed as a Yorkist partisan who would not know how to have a thought of her own on a bet(Kehler, 1998). However, once one uncovers the superficial layer of topcoat and examines the underpinnings of the characters involved one will discover that the women in the life of Richard III were strong and intelligent beyond anyone's comprehension(Kehler, 1998). They had to stay within the confines of societal expectations and allowances, which made them often "appear" to ...

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true intentions and make it sound like she had every intention of doing what he wanted her to do. However, the play on words allowed her to maneuver and manipulate the situation to be the way she wanted it to be while at the same time making him believe he had communicated his wishes and they would be met.
One of the most influential women in Richard III's life was Queen Margaret. She was the widow of Henry VI who was a Lancaster ruler at one time. Her husband had been executed and she herself was exiled from the country that she had considered her home. She was a strong woman who handled the exile with an attitude of survival. It was not an uncommon trait in the women of this era to be ...

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