By Hrichita Paul
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We are all Richard III in someone's diary.
I’ve pondered upon the question why Richard III was portrayed the way he was by Shakespeare. King Richard III was not even minutely close to the anti-hero Richard III of Shakespeare’s historical play.
This made me think of the greater human condition. There will be at least one person you have upset or have severed ties with, and they have begun to see you through the lens of deformed ignominy. One day they will make a character out of you, let’s say after you become as famous as the King Richard III, and there emerges fiction written upon you, one amongst all the fictions written on you will be your devil arc, looking at you through the lens Shakespeare saw Richard. Now it says nothing about Richard III or Shakespeare’s view of him; we’ll never know what went on Shakespeare’s mind while creating his most devilish anti-hero. We can only talk about what living on earth and being human means. You can’t please everybody, can you?
I am saying that you need to give up trying to fix things that have already shattered. It’s always good to be forgiving and accepting of your mistakes but not everybody’s going to shower you with love. There will be people who envy you for your generosity. While you may not be a Shakespeare villain, we are all villains in at least one person’s diary. No matter how much we crave perfection, there will always be someone who sees us as having a hunchback, considering it a characteristic feature of malice.
Self-love and boundaries can pass out as self-centeredness. It’s not our place to correct anyone in this regard. We’re not evil. Our failure to maintain good relationships, our failure in making someone feel good about ourselves, does not make us a villain. This is what makes us human. To be human is to have flaws, imperfections — a good and a bad side.
Even though we might not know much about why Shakespeare made Richard III look so evil, we do know how to keep ourselves out of self-blame. Sometimes, it's not about failing to take accountability but about being too hard on ourselves.
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