English ADV module A -Richard III

[bkapukaya20]

Hi! I'm in need of some feedback for one of my body paragraphs regarding this question: 

How has the context of each of the texts influences your understanding of the intentional and unintentional conversations between them?
{would be really appreciated, thank you}

Shakespeare's ‘Richard III’ uses vulgar language as well as oppressive attitudes towards women to demonstrate society during the Elizabethan era. Evidence for his dismissive language is in his initial soliloquy when he refers to women as a “wanton ambling nymph” meaning a beautiful, lustful dancing lady. In the context of 1990 and 2020, this display of disdain translates to a sexy slut. This is a purposeful authorial choice to present to the audience the views of women Richard holds being; weak {phsycially and emtionally} and inferior to men for example. It is through Richard’s soliloquies that Shakespeare has enabled intentional conversations between his character and the audience. In Richard’s soliloquy in Act 1 Scene 2, he reveals his devilish plot to manipulate Lady Anne into marrying him, “I’ll have her, but I will not keep her long”. We are now informed about the future plans for his relationship with Lady Anne; he will convince her to marry him and use her to gain power. The effect of the quote in the soliloquy further supports the nature of Richard, of his dismissive views on women portraying them as weak and vulnerable especially during a time of mourning. In addition, Richard’s agenda to take advantage of her just for power relates to the time period where women had specific roles that restricted them to a child bearer, loving wife that fulfilled household duties {cooking and cleaning}. Women were apart of a
Relationship dynamic where they were accessories to males and are apart of a concept that accepts them as helpless without a husband. Fortunately, this is a now orthodox feature to the current reformed position of gender roles in 2020 opposed from 1590. The entirety of the ‘wooing’ scene emphasises the common attitudes shared across men during medieval times, however, Shakespeare mainly expresses this through Richard to portray him as a mentally deformed character. The contextual reasoning for this is as a result of Elizabeth ruling over England, Richard III is Shakespeare’s means to flatter her and the Tudor family he belongs too. Additional evidence of this attempt of praise towards the Queen is illustrated in the characterisation of her in ‘Richard III’. She is presented as intelligent and strong-willed unlike the other female characters such as the ex-Queen Margaret who becomes a helpless widow after the death of her husband, King Henry VI. It is an important context of the medieval times to understand that ascension to the throne by murdering a woman’s husband and children was a common procedure. Women during the 1590s were portrayed as harmless and were kept alive to become helpless widows. The Queen’s disapproval of Richard’s rise to power is a reason for the common enemy between them. Hence why Shakespeare creates Richard in such a negative light that will benefit and flatter the Queen. Shakespeare's ‘Richard III’ encapsulates the use of vulgar language and his suppressive values of women as a result of characterisation by Shakespeare to reflect a contextually driven theme of women during the Elizabethan era. The substantial amount of context surrounding his authorial choices is heavily influenced upon the Queen’s reign of England and influence from the Tudor family. This context is significant in the way it influences an audience’s understanding of the intended meaning that Shakespeare mainly expressed through soliloquies. The deliberate conversations are a reflection of context concerning the text and continue 400 years later in an appropriation, ‘Looking for Richard’.
 

[kauac]

Hi! I'm in need of some feedback for one of my body paragraphs regarding this question: 

How has the context of each of the texts influences your understanding of the intentional and unintentional conversations between them?
{would be really appreciated, thank you}

Shakespeare's ‘Richard III’ uses vulgar language as well as oppressive attitudes towards women to demonstrate society during the Elizabethan era. Evidence for his dismissive language is in his initial soliloquy when he refers to women as a “wanton ambling nymph” meaning a beautiful, lustful dancing lady. In the context of 1990 and 2020, this display of disdain translates to a sexy slut. This is a purposeful authorial choice to present to the audience the views of women Richard holds being; weak {phsycially and emtionally} and inferior to men for example. It is through Richard’s soliloquies that Shakespeare has enabled intentional conversations between his character and the audience. In Richard’s soliloquy in Act 1 Scene 2, he reveals his devilish plot to manipulate Lady Anne into marrying him, “I’ll have her, but I will not keep her long”. We are now informed about the future plans for his relationship with Lady Anne; he will convince her to marry him and use her to gain power. The effect of the quote in the soliloquy further supports the nature of Richard, of his dismissive views on women portraying them as weak and vulnerable especially during a time of mourning. In addition, Richard’s agenda to take advantage of her just for power relates to the time period where women had specific roles that restricted them to a child bearer, loving wife that fulfilled household duties {cooking and cleaning}. Women were apart of a
Relationship dynamic where they were accessories to males and are apart of a concept that accepts them as helpless without a husband. Fortunately, this is a now orthodox feature to the current reformed position of gender roles in 2020 opposed from 1590. The entirety of the ‘wooing’ scene emphasises the common attitudes shared across men during medieval times, however, Shakespeare mainly expresses this through Richard to portray him as a mentally deformed character. The contextual reasoning for this is as a result of Elizabeth ruling over England, Richard III is Shakespeare’s means to flatter her and the Tudor family he belongs too. Additional evidence of this attempt of praise towards the Queen is illustrated in the characterisation of her in ‘Richard III’. She is presented as intelligent and strong-willed unlike the other female characters such as the ex-Queen Margaret who becomes a helpless widow after the death of her husband, King Henry VI. It is an important context of the medieval times to understand that ascension to the throne by murdering a woman’s husband and children was a common procedure. Women during the 1590s were portrayed as harmless and were kept alive to become helpless widows. The Queen’s disapproval of Richard’s rise to power is a reason for the common enemy between them. Hence why Shakespeare creates Richard in such a negative light that will benefit and flatter the Queen. Shakespeare's ‘Richard III’ encapsulates the use of vulgar language and his suppressive values of women as a result of characterisation by Shakespeare to reflect a contextually driven theme of women during the Elizabethan era. The substantial amount of context surrounding his authorial choices is heavily influenced upon the Queen’s reign of England and influence from the Tudor family. This context is significant in the way it influences an audience’s understanding of the intended meaning that Shakespeare mainly expressed through soliloquies. The deliberate conversations are a reflection of context concerning the text and continue 400 years later in an appropriation, ‘Looking for Richard’.
 

Hi!

First of all, you've done a great job with integrating the context and examples into the paragraph! However, I feel that it is lacking a few things at this stage:

- Techniques - I see that you've identified vulgar language and characterisation, but there are so many more you can be using for the examples you have provided. E.g. for "I'll her but I will not keep her long", think about tone, omission of Anne's name and you could use litote as well.

- I'm not sure if you had written separate paragraph for "Looking for Richard", but at this stage, it's hard to see how context impacts conversations between texts if Looking for Richard isn't mentioned (Again, this could be to do with the structure, so feel free to disregard).

- Some more analysis - be careful about your ratio of context: analysis. At the moment, I think it's a bit too heavy on the context side, and would benefit from some more specific unpacking of examples.

Some other things to think about:
- Remember that you don't need to explain the plot - assume the reader already knows this!
- Some of the wording of sentences is a bit clunky and hard to follow - I've coloured these in red.

Overall, I think you have delved deep into the question, but need to cut down/condense context and add some more techniques and specific effects and analysis! Hope this is helpful!