Revision overview/reminder of the big picture for Richard III by WIlliam Shakespeare for AS English Literature, Westlake Boys. Use as revision -- you should be able to fill in the blanks/elaborate.

1. Richard III

2. CONTEXT/BIG IDEAS
• Genre – medieval morality play
• Tudor mythology vs history
• Heaven and hell
• England in political turmoil
• Catholicism and corruption of cardinals
• Women in play – dramatic tools, device
to show Richard’s hubris and brilliance.

3. WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT?
• Power
• Real Politik
• The power of language
• The nature of evil
• Tragedy
• Morality
• The birth of the Tudor dynasty/The Tudor Myth

4. CENTRAL THEMES
• Power
• Politics
• Power of language
• Nature of evil
• Deception
• Male and female roles in society
• Conscience and morality
• Tragedy
• Revenge
• War/conflict

5. HOW?
TECHNIQUES USED BY SHAKESPEARE
• Character – Richard: is he a protagonist or
antagonist
• Structure
• Drama/staging
• Language – antithesis and contrast, imagery,
figurative language, rhythm, pronouns

6. RICHARD: ANTAGONIST OR PROTAGONIST?
• Anti-hero
• Tragic
• Machiavellian figure
• Evil/Devil
• Actor
• Figure of Vice
• Malcontent
• Isolated
• Self-Defeating

7. WRITING ABOUT DRAMA
• You MUST consider the drama of the play, of a particular scene or episode.
• This is easy – everything that has been put onto the page by Shakespeare was
done so to create drama on stage. All of the characters are dramatic
constructs, all of the staging and action is there to create drama.
• Consequently, the drama has an effect upon the audience.
• Your job when writing an essay is the display a understanding of how
Shakespeare has created drama through your knowledge of the play.
Because the drama is in the form of a script there will inevitably be a lot of
personal opinion because what you are reading is not the final product (the
stage play or film is).
• Think of poetry and prose as the same – the poet/writer uses a number of
techniques in order to convey a message of some kind. Your job is to show an
understanding of how that message is conveyed through your knowledge of
the text. These texts are open to interpretation and thus there will be personal
opinion

8. WRITING ABOUT DRAMA
• Use a simple formula to ensure your essay does the
right thing.
• PEEATEL – Point, Evidence, Explain, Analyse, Theme,
Effect, Link
1) Make a Point about the dramatic qualities of
something relevant to the question and your topic
sentence.
Sentence starters:
• Nouns: Shakespeare/Williams/The playwright/The
dramatist/The tragedian/The dramaturge/The
dramaturgist…
• Adverb: dramatically
• Verbs:
Portrays/present/employs/suggest/positions/manipulates/c
onveys/structures/characterises…
• Shakespeare’s stage directions at this point position the audience to
see…
• The dramatist structures the scene in order to create a clear contrast
between…
• Shakespeare portrays Richmond as…
• Shakespeare has Richard employ pronouns in order to underline to the
audience his sense of isolation…

9. WRITING ABOUT DRAMA
2) Provide evidence in support or to illustrate
3) Explain what this tells us about the character or situation
4) Analyse – close focus on the impact of particular words,
techniques or dramatic devices and what this tells us about the key
themes/concerns.
5) Effect. Explore how an audience might respond and what that
tells them about society, themselves, (you could even offer an
interpretation as to how this could play out on stage)
6) Possibly - * On the other hand… explore alternative
interpretations or ambiguity
• Link using a connective to the next point.
Have a go yourself. Re-write the following:
Discuss the Richard’s connection with the audience in the play.
• Richard tells the audience that he is going to be a villain and he does
lots of evil acts through the play because he wants to be king. We do
like him though and want him to win. When he decides to kill the
princes we don’t like him anymore and we are happy when
Richmond kills him. Richard has a bad dream and this makes us feel
sorry for him but when Richmond kills him peace is restored in
England.

10. WHAT NEXT?
1. Re-read the text.
2. Identify killer quotes
3. Create study notes for character,
theme, style, structure of narrative etc
4. Write some essays under times
conditions, testing your knowledge.
5. Review and target set
6. Do some short burst writing – 10 minutes
on any topic or any page.
7. Create some essay plans for the
various topics and characters that may
come up in the exam. Use the
following generic essay question:
1. Discuss the dramatic role and
importance of (insert character or
theme) in Richard III.
2. Discuss the role and characterisation of
(insert one or two characters names) in
this passage.

11. AS EXAM: ESSAY QUESTIONS
• Discuss the presentation of (theme/emotion) and its significance in the play.
• ‘key quote on a character’. To what extent would you agree with X’s view of Z?
• What, in your view, is the role and dramatic significance of X in the play?
• Discuss the Shakespeare’s dramatic presentation of ideas about (key theme or idea).
• ‘key quote’. Discuss the writer’s presentation of [key theme] and attitudes towards it in the play.
• How satisfying do you find the last Act/last scene of the play as a conclusion to the play’s action and themes?
• Discuss the presentation and significance of character X in the play as a whole
• ‘key quote’. To what extent do you sympathise with this view of X?
• How does the writer use dramatic irony throughout the play?
• Discuss the presentation and significance of X’s relationship with X in the
• play.
• To what extent do you agree that the soliloquies are central to the
dramatic impact and concerns of the play?

12. AS EXAM: PASSAGE QUESTIONS
• How does Shakespeare make this scene [select a potential passage] dramatic?
• With close reference to both stage directions and language, discuss the dramatisation of conflicting
attitudes in this passage.
• With close reference to detail, discuss the significance of the following scene at this point in the play.
• With close attention to language and tone, discuss Shakespeare’s dramatic presentation of character
X at this point in the play.
• With close attention to the detail of the following passage (including stage directions), discuss your
reaction to character X at this point in the play.
• How, and with what effects, does Shakespeare present the relationship between X and Y at this point in
the play?
• With close reference to language and action, discuss the dramatic significance of the following scene.
• How might an audience react to the writer’s presentation of character X at this point in the play? You
should make close reference to details of both language and action.
• With close reference to language and action, discuss the effects created by Shakespeare’s handling of
dialogue in this scene.
• With close reference to the passage, discuss the significance of this passage to your
understanding of X’s character and motives.