King Richard III and Looking for Richard Anonymous 12th Grade

Every text is a confluence of other texts, containing parallels and fragments that give meaning and timelessness through prevalent themes that transcend generations. An exploration of explicit and implicit connections between a pair of texts enhances an individual’s understanding of the ideas, values and attitudes pronounced. This alters the way an audience may interpret the original text and validates common themes of power, duplicity and morality in a contemporary light. This relationship is evident in a critical analysis of Shakespeare’s 1591 historical play King Richard III and Al Pacino’s 1996 docudrama Looking for Richard. The context of each text is reflective of the respective time periods in which they were made and elucidate the cultural issues and philosophical paradigms of humanity as a whole.

Religious paradigms that underpin society shape texts. The purpose of the manifestation of metaphysical evil elucidated through deformity of the body is easily understood by an Elizabethan audience, due to the supernatural and religious context of the time. This personification of evil was employed by Shakespeare to construe Richard III as not merely a conniving villain, but the embodiment of a Machiavellian character,...