Ambition and Identity in Shakespeare's King Richard the Third and Al Pacino's Looking for Richard

2186 Words9 Pages
“A deeper understanding of ambition and identity emerges from pursuing the connections between King Richard the Third and Looking for Richard” - Compare how these texts explore ambition and identity. By analysing King Richard the Third and Looking for Richard comparatively, one gains a greater understanding of ambition and identity and how these interrelate, primarily through their different contexts and use of different mediums. Richard the Third, a play by William Shakespeare, was composed during the Elizabethan era, while the film Looking for Richard by Al Pacino, was created in the late 20th Century, during the post-modern era. As a result, we can observe a shift in the importance and value, of ambition and identity. Moreover, the different mediums enable the audience to explore the performative nature of identity and the individualistic nature of ambition and how the different contexts respond to and portray this. Ambition and identity in Richard the Third are overwhelmingly portrayed in a negative light, ultimately resulting in dire consequences; in an Elizabethan context individualism and ambition reflected a person striving to grasp what was not due to them - ultimately, opposing God’s will. Richard, in the play, is represented as both villain and protagonist. We are made aware of Richards duplicitous nature and his evil aspirations as early as Act 1 Scene 1 where he states “I am determinèd to prove a villain” a self referential (and metadramatic in nature) pun which brings about questions of determinism and free will, themes that are explored throughout the play; there is ambiguity around whether or not Richard actually has autonomy over his nefarious deeds, which he goes about plotting. In keeping with his Elizabethan context, Shakespeare can not be seen to oppose the chain of being, the hierarchical chain of the period where a king was at the top,
Open Document