Richard III - A Play for our Time
"I am determined to prove a villain"

Richard the Machiavellian villain ?

Niccolo Machiavelli , an Italian statesman and famous author issued in 1513 his book il principe where he describes the characteristics of a sovereign of a country. In Shakespeare’s time Machiavelli’s il principe was thoroughly known by just a few English people but Shakespeare probably knew the content rather well.
Regarding the definition of machiavellinism , one will say that Shakespeare's Richard III. definitely fits that category due to the fact that machiavellinism describes the subordination of ethics to political power.
The character of Richard III. pretty much shows that. Having killed almost all of the members of his family and nobles , the subjection of moral to the desire of power becomes clear.Granted, so far everything fits just fine the definition of machiavellinism, however, regarding the book Il Principe by Machiavelli, one will say that Richard III is not really a machiavellian king.
Machiavelli argues in the 8^th chapter that a prince should commit all acts of violence that need to be done at once, because otherwise he will have to be prepared for violence throughout his reign leading to mistrust and anxiety towards the prince and thus he might become the victim of conspiracy. According to Shakespeare's play  Richard III, that is exactly what happens. Richard does not kill all his enemies at once, but rather one after another, even during his reign. Finally there is no one who can help him in the final battle of Bosworth, because everybody who could do so is dead. To some extent Richard resembles a machiavellian villain. Machiavelli claims in his book that a sovereign should rather be feared than be loved by the people. No doubt this proves the resemblance to a machiavellian sovereign, however, in the same chapter Machiavelli argues that a prince should not be hated by the people. Talking of that one has to admit that Richard is hated by almost everybody in the play.
Moreover Machiavelli claims that a prince has to be deceitful if it is necessary and suits his purpose. However, there are basically five virtues he has to represent to the people while being deceitful: honesty, uprightness, religiousness, mercy and humanity.
By representing those a prince's reign will be free of trouble.
Actually Richard is a deceitful person, however he does not represent these five virtues.
Having in mind that Shakespeare most likely knew about the content of Machiavelli's book, one actually gets the impression that to some extent Richard represents a machiavellian prince, but to a greater extent his opponent ,the earl of Richmond, has the characteristics of a machiavellian prince, due to the fact that Machiavelli claims in the 6^th chapter that if a righteous man, who gains power of a country, defeating the sovereign of that country, will not lose any power later on and will be happy and beloved by the people.
Having written the play " Richard III" for a Tudor Queen, Shakespeare most aptly characterizes the earl of Richmond as England' s savior and thus he legitimates Elisabeth as the Queen of England
Machiavelli's theory is not an evil theory, but rather an advice of how to become a capable sovereign of a country. No doubt that Richard is a villain, but he is not a real machiavellian villain.
 
 

 

HOMEPAGE	Shakespeare's 'Richard III'
PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH	Richard III and women
	Richard III the multi-faced villain
	Physical and psychological deformity
	Richard's family background
HISTORICAL APPROACH	Richard III in the mirror of centuries
	Justification of Tudor dynasty?
	History in Shakespeare's Richard III
	Guilty or not guilty?
POLITICAL APPROACH	Richard III - a modern dictator?
	Richard III the Machiavellian villain?
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