Richard III Essays (826 words) - Shakespearean Histories

Richard III What Richard III did was Right, or Wrong King Richard III, in my opinion, was a greedy, yet determined man who would do whatever it took to achieve the position of king of England. What he did to get to this position was wrong, however, how he went about achieving what he wanted shows that he had intelligence. Having to kill a family member to get to where he wanted to be, did not even stop him. I believe that him doing this was very dishonorable. Even the book, Shakespeare and the Renaissance Code of Honor says "dishonor is worse than death." In this same book I found a piece of information saying "If the renaissance aristocracy loved and pursued honor intensely, and with it's whole being. It follows logically that dishonor was the one thing in life which could not be tolerated." Another quote from the same book on honor says "Since honor was so highly esteemed not only to one's own life, but also the lives of those close and dear to oneself, might be sacrificed in order to maintain one's reputation", which is almost exactly what Richard did. As stated above, in my opinion, I think that what Richard III did to achieve his position was wrong, but he does have a massive amount of intelligence to be able to pull off his master plan. His goal is to become the King of England, and he would go to any means necessary to get this. Although what he did proved to be morally in correct, the also proved to be intelligent ideas. For example, he sees a path he can take that will lead him right to the thrown, but his brother, Clarence, is next in line to inherit it. What Richard does to prevent this from happening is he has his own brother murdered. That, in my views, is one of the most dishonorable things he does in the play. Yet he executes this plan very wisely. The reason behind this being that he hired two hit-men to do it for him, and the authorities have no way of pinning this crime on Richard. From one internet site Richard in the Mirror of the Centuries, it says, "Shakespeare's characterization of Richard III has been accepted as a historical portrait ? a portrait of the most wicked of English kings. The question is, whether this is not rather exaggerated?" After reading further in this document, I find that it blatantly says "From the very first beginning, in the opening soliloquy, Richard tells the spectators about his own wickedness and he really does prove a villain! He verifies the impression we get in the first scene throughout the drama by acting and thinking the way he does. Always doing what he was"promised" before, he appears to be an unscrupulous person ? a night-mare king." Which supports my opinion which says what he does is wrong. There is also another type of honor that I see broken in this play, and that's honor to your family. If he honored his family, he would let things take the course they are supposed to take, and let his brother Clarence take over as King. I found a quote in the book Shakespeare and the Renaissance Concept of Honor, by a man by the name of Castiglione, and the quote says "for it is a great deal less dispraise for him that is not born a gentleman to fail in the acts of virtue, than for a gentleman. If he swerve from the steps of his ancestors, he has straineth the name of his family." In addition to this quote, I would like to mention that this book also says "Loyalty to one's family is placed ahead of obedience." So according to these teaching, what Richard did, just killing his brother, appears to be very dishonorable, and that is aside from everything else that he did. In conclusion to my essay would like to say that there seems to be plenty of facts, in books, that proves my opinion which is, what Richard did was wrong. According to the Elizabethan Laws, All the things that he did was extremely dishonorable. All the facts that I found in my references are true facts, they are not laws that are made for the story. I can see how the laws, or teaching have changed from back in the Elizabethan time, and now. For an interesting thought, I think that these acts, to a certain extent,

war of 1812 worst fought war1 essays

war of 1812 worst fought war1 essays The War of 1812 also know as "The Second American War for Independance" (Bailey pg. 233) was fought between the meeger forces of the American government and the supreme power of Great Britain. The war ended in 1815 with the treaty of Gehnt, this treaty wasnt really a treaty but an armastice or surrender of arms. The American military suffered from defeat after defeat during the begining of the war, these loses could be contributed to by the lack of citizen support in the time of war, also the lack in size and power of the American military. These factor validate the statement that the War of 1812 was the "Worst fought American war." At the begining of the war America was fighting with Great Britain for regress of greivances such as forcefull impressment of sailors, and seizure of American cargos. Plus the extraction of British troups from the Ohio valley which was previously promised in two former treaties, Jays treaty and the Treaty of Paris. The regress of grievances was just a stepping stone for American ambition, after the start of the war Americans thought wouldnt it be great if we could add Canada and Spanish Florida to our ever expanding bounderies. But the backing of the war wasnt there politicaly the northern merchants were affraid of the deletion of trade options with Britain because of the war. The southern farmers were also against the war because Britain was there main purchaser of cotton and indigo. On the other hand you have to Backcountry farmers who need more room to expand there farms or find better soil for crops who wanted to the war to expand there expansion areas. Support also came from t he deep southern farmers who wanted Florida for there own. The ideas between both of these groups created political disunity between the states, making them quarel among themselves weakening the national government. As we travel back a little in time we come to Jefferson's ...