Queen Margaret: The Tradegy of Richard III

Far from being a play of light-hearted amusement, Richard III, in the spirit of Margaret’s ominous series of predictions, is a tale of aspiration, fratricidal hostility, treachery, infidelity and bloodshed. The presence of Margaret hovering about, almost in the classic tragic sense, as a verbal backdrop, echoing and highlighting these dreary events, adds intensity and depth. Though Margaret plays a very minor role in the play’s plot, she is nonetheless one of the most important and memorable characters.

The impotent, overpowering rage that she directs at Richard III and his family stands for the helpless, righteous anger of all his victims. Margaret’s utterance, actually a series of curses, in response to Richard III’s rejection of her rightful place as Queen, forms the backdrop against which her ill-fated prophecies are ultimately realized. In a sense, it will prove useful to examine three of her ten or more primary prophesies or curses, as they are fulfilled, with a view toward revealing their magnitude and implications within Richard III as a whole.

Margaret hates the Yorks and the Woodevilles because she feels they have displaced her and she blamed them for ki

And now I cloy me with beholding it.

Bear with me! I am hungry for revenge,

O upright, just, and true-disposing God,

lling her own family. Her extravagant and detailed curses create a gloomy sense of apprehension. “Thy honor, state, and seat is due to me,” she says to Queen Elizabeth, and Margaret curses the royal family to suffer a fate parallel to hers. Because her own son Edward was killed, Margaret predicts that

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