Connections Between Texts

How do the openings of Richard III and Looking for Richard illuminate the key ideas and connections between the texts?
The key connections in the openings of the play Richard III By William Shakespeare and the film Looking for Richard By Pacino include the vice character of Richard and the fight for overall power. These two texts may both explore these ideas but the way in which they portray them can differ greatly or in some cases be very much the same. As Richard III being a play Shakespeare has to accommodate for an auditory audience so uses much imagery and repetition to convey his key ideas to the audience whereas in the film Looking for Richard, Pacino can use both visual and language techniques to put forward his ideas to the audience.
The character of Richard is very much an outsider in the play Richard III by William Shakespeare. From the very first moment of the play the audience is able to mark Richard out as the outsider through the significant stage prompt of Richard entering solus. During Shakespearean times working together as a community was valued highly and this stage movement immediately conveys to the audience that he may be challenging society’s norms. In Richard’s soliloquy this also helps reinforce him as an outsider as well as him telling the audience that he has a deformity and that he “nor made to court an amorous looking-glass” which conveys that he doesn’t like what he sees and that he is a sinner. The repeated references to “I” in the soliloquy also further the idea that he is challenging society and their views of chain of being as he only cares of himself and not others. Richard is also depicted in the play as being a vice character as he is typical of that character as he is the corruptor and manipulator “I am determined to prove a villain” as he has a deformity people in Shakespearean times immediately judged them as being evil so he is simply fulfilling his destiny he believes. The fact that he speaks directly with the audience...