Citizens’ Intuition in Shakespeare’s “Richard III” Jessica Harrell College

Shakespeare’s “Richard III” mainly concerns itself with the royal court under the rule of the Yorks; however, occasionally, Shakespeare takes a break from portraying the lives of noblemen. These window scenes provide the audience with insight as to what the common people think about the drama ensuing in court, resulting in a greater perspective of the play as a whole. One of these scenes occurs in Act Two, Scene Three, where three citizens discuss the death of Edward IV and its ensuing power struggle concerning who the next king should be. After close analysis of this scenes language, it becomes apparent that this scene contributes to the idea in the play that, through their general knowledge and intuition, the citizens know that danger is imminent with the death of Edward IV and the power struggle of which Richard III is part.

The first few lines of this scene consist of the relaying of the news that Edward IV is dead. After the First Citizen tells the Second Citizen that the king is dead, the Second Citizen immediately replies with “seldom comes the better” (2.3.4). The footnote explains that this means that times are bad and are probably going to get worse. Basically, this is a premonition of bad things to come. Since this...