Symbolism+in+the+Play

Symbolism in Richard III By Yuh Sarah Datwani In the play __Richard III__ by William Shakespeare, one of the major symbolism that can be seen is Richard’s heraldic symbol, the boar. This symbol describes the personality of Richard himself and also as the foreshadowing of eventual fate of one of the character in the play. At the time when the play took place, which is around 1483-1485 in the Mediaeval times, wild boar hunting was one of the sports that were played by the upper classes. This was considered to be very dangerous yet risk taking and was used to show the bravery. So the reason why the boar has been keep mentioned in the play was because to show how undefeatable Richard was and that no one had any courage to go against him until Earl of Richmond, also known as Henry Tudor kills him in the battle. The personality of Richard is very much like the boar; ferocious and undefeatable. It is shown in the play how cruel Richard is that he has been killing people to eliminate the possible rebellion or conflicts and he does not even hesitate to kill his family or relatives. This was one of the actions that support his personality that he is like a boar. As Margaret curses Richard, she quotes that “Though elvish-marked, abortive, rooting hog, the slave of nature and the son of hell.” In this quote she is referring Richard as a “hog” which also can mean “boar.” Another example of Richard being referred as a boar is when Lord Stanley dreams Hastings’s death by a boar which was a prophecy that was warning that Hasting was in danger. This example of Richard being referred as a boar plays an important role that gave foreshadowing in the play and the personality description of Richard.

Dorset, Rivers and Gray These three characters are the allies of Queen Elizabeth who is part of the Woodeville family. These characters plays an important role as one of the “Richard’s tools.” Richard uses them so that he could make Lord Hastings to join in the plan but Lord Hasting did not like the idea of Richard being a king of the England Since Dorset, Rivers and Gray are on Queen Elizabeth’s side who is a opponent of Richard, Richard immediately arrest them after the King Edward passed away. This shows the position of three guys that they were opposed to Richard and was supposed to rebel on Richard’s plan but they were killed (except Dorset who runs away) beforehand. They played and important role as the opponents of Richard which they were used as part of the plan.