The Significance Of Dreams In Richard III

The Significance Of Dreams In Richard leashRichard III was written by William Shakespe are and tells the story of how Richard wants to become king and does everything in his government agency to get there by assassinating members of his family to do so, for example, the Duke of Clarence, passkey Hastings, Lady Anne, Lord Rivers, the Duke of Buckingham, Henry VI, Prince Edward, Prince Edward V and Prince Richard. In the following piece of writing, I am going to discuss the significance of dreams in the play and how they are connect to the base of the ghostlike.Although a modern audience would find the musical theme of the supernatural in Richard III very strange and would react to it very differently we have to keep in mind that this play was written during the spiritual rebirth period in which people were very superstitious and England on a whole was an extremely religious country people believed in both God and the Devil and Heaven and Hell. They also believed in the supern atural, prophecies, curses and thus the events contained at bottom Richard III must have seemed very real to a Shakespearian audience.The motif of the supernatural which is an extremely important aspect of the play consists of ghosts, dreams, Margarets premonitory curses, the allegations of witchcraft Richard levels at Elizabeth and mistress Shore and the continual association of Richard with devils and demons (for example, he is often called a hellhound). Shakespeare uses the dark aspect of the supernatural to create an automated teller of dread and gloom which matches the evil of Richards inner self. In addition the motif of the supernatural helps highlight the aspect of foreboding as many a times in the play the prophetic dreams and curses come true liberal the reader an idea of as to what is going to happen in the scraggy future.There are tether main instances of dreams presend in the play. These predict the forthcoming events by showing the similar characteristics between the dream itself and ingenuousness, for example, in conduct 1, Scene 4 we bear witness to the first of these three dreams. This is when Clarence is imprisoned in the tower and he dreams that he is fleeing with Richard to France, but on the ship Richard stumbles and throws Clarence over squealerd causing him to drown, Methoughts that I had broken from the Tower, and was embarkd to cross to Burgundy and, in my company, my brother Gloucester who from my cabin tempted me to walk upon the hatches.Methought that Gloucester stumbled and, in falling, struck me, that thought to baulk him, overboard, into the tumbling billows of the main. This dream foreshadows the near future as in reality Clarence is stabbed and drowned in a barrel of wine by the executioners who are sent by Richard.The second significant dream takes place in Act 3, Scene2 when Stanley receives a warning in a form of a dream. He dreams that a boar rips off his head, the boar had razed his helm. In this scenario the boar represents Richard as it is his heraldic symbol, Stanley tries to warn Hastings but he turns desensitize ears to Stanleys advice. Later on in the play, we learn that Hastings was beheaded on Richards orders. This reminds us the similarity between the dream and reality itself and the extent of the simile between the two simply helps highlight the supernatural aspect of the play.The tierce and most important dream occurs in Act 5, Scene 3 right before Richard and Richmond head out for bout. Here, Richard and Richmond are visited by a parade of eleven ghosts (all those people who Richard had killed in the past). many of these ghosts include, Prince Edward, King Henry VI, Clarence, Rivers, Grey, Vaughan, Hastings, the young princes, Lady Anne and Buckingham. All the ghosts follow a dampicular pattern They constantly curse Richard and discourage him by aspect things like, Despair and Die. On the other hand, they praise and bless Richmond and push him by saying things like, Live and Flourish and they hope that he wins the battle and ends Richards gruesome reign. This is an extremely significant dream, as the element of foreboding is at one time again emphasized as true to the ghosts word, Richmond wins the battle by defeating Richard and becomes the new King of England.To conclude, dreams are a very important part of the play as they greatly contribute to the motif of the supernatural. In addition, I feel that the play is made much simpler for the reader by the humans of these dreams as he/she can predict the outcome of particular situations by evaluating these dreams and this helps the reader understand the play better. The extent of accuracy of these dreams simply heightens the motif of the supernatural and I personally believe that without the presence of these dreams, the play would be incomplete.