Who Is Shakespeare’s Richard III (actually)?
Who Is Shakespeare’s Richard III (actually)?

Summary/Abstract: Besides Hamlet, Macbeth or Lear, Richard III is one of the greatest protagonists in Shakespeare’s dramas named after their main characters. Richard is the dominant character of the play. He is the central figure to which everything and everyone is related, to a lesser or greater degree. In his presence, no one can be left untouched, including the audience.1 The paper explores some aspects of Richard’s personality viewed through his two soliloquies – the first and the last one. Two radically different speeches, yet delivered by the same man. Is he revealing his true self to us when he takes us into his confidence, or is he wearing the actor’s mask of a reliable narrator to disguise a darker reality? In either case, are we seduced?

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