How has the study of the connection between your set texts shaped

your understanding of context and values?

The exploration of William Shakespeares play King Richard III and Al Pacinos
1996 doco-drama film Looking for Richard reveals the explicit relationships
between each text and their respective audience. The Elizabethan and
twentieth century contexts in each of these texts are important as it
demonstrates the value of each text and enables the understanding of how the
film enriches the ideas presented in the play. Shakespeares King Richard III
portrays a malicious and corrupted Richard to explore the themes of divine
justice and the notion of outer appearance versus inner reality in the
theocentric context of the Elizabethan society. Four centuries later, Al Pacinos
Looking for Richard reflects the directors quest to come to terms with a
Shakespearean text in a contemporary context, providing a personal
examination of the same Richards behaviour, whist simultaneously reflects the
post modern era with the absence of divine order and the change in views of
conscience. Ultimately, it is through the study of these texts and a comparative
study that these texts illuminate our understanding of different contexts and
values.
Shakespeare depicts Richards duplicity through his soliloquies and asides as
they reveal his multifaceted and deceptive nature. Richards oratory skills,
whilst they are revealed to be witty, as he is shown to use intelligent word play,
irony and stichomythia, he is ultimately cast as the Machiavellian character
from the outset of the play determined to play a villain. Richard puts the
blame on his appearance for the immoral acts he commits deformed,
unfinished, sent before my time and uses it as an excuse to be power hungry.
Richards duplicity is highlighted when his brother Clarence is sent to the tower
to be murdered. Any sympathy elicited from the audience in the opening
soliloquy is undermined immediately by the deeply ironic dialogue with
Clarence. Richard appears to have no idea what is going on and innocently asks
Brother, good day. What means this armed guard/ That waits upon your
grace? Clarence claims that their older brother, the King Edward has sent him
to the tower to be killed, however ironically, it was Richard what had persuaded
Edward to send Clarence to the tower. Richard then tries to act like the loving
brother Brother farewell this deep disgrace/ Touches me deeper than you
can imagine. The audience is comforted in the knowledge that divine order
will be restored and retribution will be reaped. The Elizabethan audience would
have been disturbed by Richards ability to be so duplicitous and would have
wanted his duplicity punished.

Pacinos film Looking for Richard reflects the values of its society as Pacino
attempts to create a Shakespearean play more accessible to a twentieth
century audience. The film begins and ends with the intertextual use of an
extract from Shakespeares The Tempest that through the voiceover,
ultimately justifies the postmodern ambiguity of the twentieth century our
actors all spiritsthis insubstantial pageantsuch stuff that dreams are
made onour little life is rounded with a sleep. This reinforces that life cannot
provide us with moral certainty and stability and that the search for the truth,
morality and reality is futile and endless, unlike the Elizabethan era. It also
suggests that life is an illusion of dreams and that our lives are just one big
performance. Pacinos portrayal of Richards duplicity revels in his ability to
deceive those who trust him best hes in good shape. He can move around. He
can maneuver. Hes got room. He is able to play the villain, loving brother
resistant king and desperate lover with incredible skill. The fluid editing
between rehearsal scenes, the staged performances and the actors heated
discussions reveal Richards ability to (re)construct the truth, especially the
scene where Richard is hugging Clarence and persuading Edward, where his
duplicity is emphasised. Richards punishment is not Gods divine retribution, at
worst, he becomes psychologically fragmented and haunted by his conscience.
The final scene almost positions the audience to feel somewhat sympathetic
towards his looming death, which low angle shots are used to reflect his loss of
power. The contemporary, post-modern audience understands that humans are
multifaceted and expect individuals to have many facades in their daily lives
and thus, do not condemn his deception as immediately as the Shakespearean
audience.
King Richard III depicts the characterization of Richard through the
representation of divine order and justice. Richard attempts to usurp the
position and authority as king and is the catalyst of the chaotic events that
sweep the nation. Richard constantly tries to obtain the position as king and
tactically removes anyone that acts as a barrier to him completing his mission,
including his own family lies well steeled with weighty arguments. This thirst
for power results in his increasingly diabolic depiction foul devil, as a result of
his attempts to disturb the divine order. The text was set in a theocentric
society in which people believed that God will seek retribution to anyone that
goes against his will. This is demonstrated when Margaret curses Richard for
killing her husband and son in the War of the Roses sin, death and hell have
their marks set on him. The Elizabethan audience believed that to disrupt this
rigid moral order would cause social chaos, thus, in Shakespeares morally
didactic and thoroughly moralistic text, divine order had to be restored A

murderous villain which God revenge and those who usurped the hand of
God had to pay the ultimate price for their sins Hie thee to hell for shame
there thy kingdom is.
Conversational, Looking for Richard ignores the extent of the social chaos
caused by Richards villainy. Instead, it targets the audience lacking any
spiritual references and live in a world with no absolutes where importance is
placed on the individual. This becomes evidently when Pacino succinctly states
A person has an opinion. Its only an opinion. Its never a question of right or
wrong. The dialogue reflects a secular society where theocratic elements are
no longer universally accepted. The film juxtaposes the twentieth century
values with those of the Elizabethan audience to depict that individuals are
guided only by their own moral compass and not by religion. This is revealed as
Pacino has omitted the dialogue between Clarences murderers as they reveal
their fear of the divine price of their murderous behaviour. Instead, he chooses
to focus the conversation on their own individual guilty consciences and the
impact on their lives Faith, certain dregs of conscience are here within me.
Pacino chooses to cut out the religious rhetoric to highlight that although the
ideas remain pertinent, Elizabethan values are to an extent, irrelevant to the
twentieth century audience. Rapid camera movements of Richard depict him as
a tormented, fragmented and a psychologically unstable man. Richard is
haunted by the ghost of his conscience and ultimately, is punished by his
madness rather than his death. Looking for Richard empahasises that there is
no fear of divine retribution but the impact of their immoral behaviour on their
individual identity. In the twentieth century context justice comes in the form of
their own psychological fragmentation and guilty conscience, rather than
sanctioned by God.
Thus, the analysis of this pair of texts served to heighten our understanding of
the values and contexts of the texts and the commonalities between them.
Shakespeares fifteenth century audience placed great significant value on
religion. The Elizabethans are comforted in the knowledge that any individual
to usurp the hand of God will face divine retribution and right will definitely be
restored. On the other hand, Pacinos twentieth century audience have no
agreed spiritual references and live in a postmodern world where independence
is placed on the individual rather than God. Ultimately the contextual
comparison of the texts furthers our understanding of the values portrayed
within the two different time periods.