The Art of Wooing

One of my favorite scenes in Richard III is Act I, Scene II. This scene isn’t a scene where the audience sees Richard’s complete evil. Sure at this point we know he’s nuts, and the fact that he plans to kill her after they’ve married is basically a dead giveaway (no pun intended). This isn’t the scene where he orders the death of his own brother or the two young princes. The thing that makes this one of the better scenes in the play is that it shows Richard’s evil not from the abrupt murders he commits, but more so from the devious scheming deception that he uses to gain everyone’s sympathy and in turn their trust in a sense. In this particular scene Richard succeeds in his attempt to woo Lady Anne to marry him. Although throughout the scene she is constantly saying how much she hates him; she calls him a "villain" and a "devil." But the beauty of this scene isn’t that Richard merely succeeds., it lies in the fact that he first has the gall to woo a woman (his future wife no less!) over the body of her dead father in-law; a man Richard killed along with her husband.

The thing I love most about this scene isn’t the irony of the setting, it by far is the dialogue. To me, this is Shakespeare at his finest. The dialogue is quick and witty and sharp and sadly enough the scene is a little humorous because of the absolute bull crap Richard uses in his favor. With every negative Lady Anne throws at Richard, he responds with an over-affectionate response.

Anne: O wonderful, when devils tell the truth!
Richard: More wonderful, when angels are so angry.Vouchsafe, divine perfection of a woman,Of these supposed-evils, to give me leave,By circumstance, but to acquit myself.

Richard: Why dost thou spit at me?
Anne: Would it were mortal poison, for thy sake!
Richard: Never came poison from so sweet a place.

The entire scene is just great so it’s hard to pick lines... those were just a few that defended my point. The culmination of this scene ends with Lady Anne unable to kill Richard herself and in doing this she essentially concedes to him. Richard even brags "Was ever woman in this humor woo'd? Was ever woman in this humor won?" I think he finds it amazing he succeeded (as if he needed more a boost to his ego). The last image of the scene is another one of Richard’s soliloquies that, like the rest, is bad news. After witnessing Richard woo this poor woman the audience learns he’s going to kill her, to state it bluntly. This just reemphasizes what the audience has known all along... Richard is one evil evil man.