Richard 3rd Soliloquy

In Act 1 Scene 1, the play opens with Richard Ш conveying his thoughts to the audience in a soliloquy which proves to be very important. In this soliloquy the audience is made aware of his physical deformity and his future plans which we will see unravel during the course of the play.

Gloster’s soliloquy is significant because he informs the audience of his physical features. We learn that he is ugly and has a hunched back, he also expresses his difficulty in finding love because of the deformity. This soliloquy’s importance is shown because the audience learns that Gloster’s deformity and inability to find love fuels him to become a villain. This dramatic convention is also important because it reveals Gloster’s plans to set his brothers Clarence and King Edward against each other then have them both killed in order to secure the crown for himself. He also reveals his plans to marry Lady Anne, this he believes will help him in his plot to gain the crown. This plan may seem uncanny since Gloster killed both Anne’s father and her husband a fact noted by Gloster himself but he is determined to see his plans through saying, “the readiest way to make wench amends is to become her husband and her father.”

The soliloquy sets the stage for the play in that the entire plot of the play is built closely around it. The audience will see plans made in the soliloquy unknot during the play and witness the consequences of the said plans.