Richard III Fate and Free Will Quotes

In this line from the play's opening speech, Richard reveals to us his plans to take the crown by force.  There are a couple different ways to interpret this line, depending on how we define the word "determined." 

If we take "determined" to mean "resolved," then Richard is implying that he's made a personal decision to be a villain and is willing to do whatever it takes to get the crown.  This is typical Richard, always going out of his way to tell us how smooth he is and that he's the one who makes everything happen.  (This works in favor of the "free will" argument.)  But, read a different way, the word "determined" can also mean "pre-determined" or "fated," which suggests that Richard is not acting of his own free will, but rather God's.  

Margaret is always cursing Richard and calling on divine justice to punish crimes he committed in the past.  In this way, Margaret suggests that history is shaped by providential design.

Richard is always bragging about how he's so crafty and smooth when he lies, cheats, and murders his way to the crown.  Here he gloats about committing terrible crimes while blaming them on others.  He's also fond of quoting passages from the Bible in order to hide his "naked villainy" from everyone.  In other words, Richard behaves like a saint to disguise his bad behavior. 

According to literary critic Stephen Greenblatt, this is classic "Machiavellian" behavior.  Niccolò Machiavelli's The Prince (1532), was a "how-to" guide for rulers about holding on to power.  Machiavelli argued that being a successful leader had nothing to do with being a nice person or doing the right thing. Instead, it's about being inventive, manipulative, charismatic, crafty, and willful. 

Why does this matter?  Well, when Shakespeare portrays Richard as a "machiavel," he's suggesting that Richard behaves according to his own free will. 

Richard has this whole Machiavellian leader thing down.  He basically role-plays his way to the crown, pretending to be godly and moral even though he's acting like a "devil."  Richard takes pride in his skills as a master manipulator, suggesting that he's acting according to his own free will.

Here Margaret foresees Richard's destruction of the House of York.  This is not news to the audience, which has the advantage of historical hindsight and knows exactly where the play is headed.  Still, this passage is interesting for a couple of reasons.  First, the play's (and Margaret's) foreknowledge suggests that events are unfolding according to providential design.  It's also interesting (and gross) that Margaret uses a fruit metaphor to suggest that Richard's prosperity has gone from being "ripe" to "rotten."  Translation:  Things are going downhill fast for Richard and the House of York. 

Queen Margaret believes God is using Richard to punish the Yorks for doing terrible things to the Lancasters.  But Margaret never acknowledges the fact that she and the rest of her family have done some pretty awful things themselves.  Check out the next passage (1.3.15) below.

In the previous passage we saw that Margaret views Richard as an instrument of divine justice. She thinks God is using Richard to punish the Yorks for their crimes against the Lancasters.  Here, however, Richard argues that God is punishing the Lancasters for the crimes they have committed against his family. (In Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 3, Richard's dad cursed Margaret for her involvement in his son Rutland's murder.  Margaret had taunted Richard's dad by putting a paper crown on his head and waving a bloody handkerchief ("clout") in his face.  The handkerchief was dipped in his son Rutland's blood.)

In other words, the Lancasters and the Yorks have been going at it for a very long time, and if it's true that God is using Richard's reign as a form of punishment, then everybody is getting what they deserve. 

Margaret is telling the Duchess of York how everyone has been punished for their past crimes. She suggests that when people get murdered in the play, it's because they were basically asking for it.  

Margaret refers to Richard as hell's black intelligencer, suggesting that his tyranny is God's way of punishing the Lancasters and Yorks for their past sins. 

There's plenty of evidence to suggest that everything that happens in the play is fated.  More specifically, the play suggests that events unfold according to divine providence.  When Queen Margaret calls on God's divine justice to punish Richard for all of his terrible deeds, the play suggests that Richard's grab for the throne and his fall from power have been predetermined by God.

According to the newly crowned King Henry VII, his ascension to the throne is all part of a God's plan.  (Lots of English kings went around saying they were divinely appointed to the throne.)  So does that mean that Richard's rise and fall were also part of God's master plan?  If so, does this excuse his behavior?