Act I:
*Richard sets up his brother who is sent to prison for treason.
*Richard proposes to Lady Anne, despite having murdered her husband.
*Henry VI’s widow, Queen Margaret, puts curses on everyone.
*Clarence is killed and his body placed in a cask of wine.
Richard’s eldest brother has become King Edward IV, after their family, the House of York, defeated the House of Lancaster in battle.
Richard plots against his family and shares his plans with the audience. He manipulates the king, turning him against their other brother Clarence, who is then imprisoned in the Tower of London.
King Edward IV is fooled by Richard’s acting and believes he is loyal. Richard lies to Clarence and promises to help him.
Richard’s first soliloquy is full of descriptive language and contrasting imagery, for example: winter/summer, wrinkled/smooth. Richard opens the play with one of Shakespeare’s most famous lines:
Now is the winter of our discontent
Richard proposes to Lady Anne, despite having murdered her husband.
Richard wants to marry Lady Anne to gain more power in the royal court. Lady Anne is grieving the death of her husband and her father-in-law, who were both Lancasters and were killed by Richard in battle.
Richard starts to woo Anne during the funeral procession for her late father-in-law, King Henry VI. King Henry VI’s wounds start to bleed. In Shakespeare’s time there was a superstition that if a murderer and the corpse of his victim were in the same room, the victim would start to bleed again. This happens in the play when Richard is in the same room as the body of Henry VI, showing Richard’s undeniable guilt.
At first Anne insults and rejects Richard, and she even spits at him. Richard claims that he killed her husband so he could be with her, and dramatically gives her a sword to kill him. Lady Anne can’t bring herself to kill Richard and agrees to become his wife.
King Edward IV tries to resolve the conflicts in the royal court and Richard pretends to agree. He secretly organizes for his brother Clarence to be murdered.
Richard’s hired assassins kill Clarence and place his body in a cask of wine.
