Female Morality and Verbal Power in Act 1 of "Richard III"

At Hockaday, we were given the assignment of telling whether or not the female characters within Richard III have verbal power and how that affects the discourse of morality throughout the play.

 I believe the three female characters introduced within Act 1 of the play all display some form of verbal power, Elizabeth’s being more tamed. This verbal power highly depends on their place in society as the two females, Margaret and Lady Anee, who are lower down in the socio-political pyramid are brash in speaking to Richard, while Elizabeth, who is queen, is more mannerly and non-accusing in speaking to him, but all, to some extent, "see" his villainy. Margaret and Anne, Lancasters, are on the opposing side of the Yorks, so they more freely express how they feel when speaking to or about them. They are angry: because Margaret lost her husband and son, and Anne lost her husband-to-be, their disdain for the Yorks, especially Richard, is natural.  Elizabeth, on the other hand, married to Edward, is a part of the House of York, even though she was once married to a Lancastrian knight who was killed at the hands of the Yorks. Her position, straddling both families but not firmly a York, is unique, and although we can infer Edward IV's family did not like her nor she them, the way she speaks to Richard indicates that she is careful in all that she says. She always says, for example, what amounts to "you do not favor me," never declaring her hatred toward him, as do both Margaret and Anne. She has verbal power as she expresses how she feels to Richard, but she is politically cautious, never making herself sound hateful.

 Throughout Act 1, the experience of the women affects their ability their moral integrity within their speech. Elizabeth and Margaret are more able to uphold their moral stance within their speech, even though Elizabeth is more passive in her regards, while Anne quickly tarnishes her moral integrity. We can assume that Margaret, when she was queen, had the chance to be formal and proper. She can now truly express her feelings for, as an older woman bereft of power, she has little to lose; Elizabeth, on the other hand,  must be careful in all she says for her security and perhaps her husband's life depends upon her discretion.   She is experienced in regards to Richard, as he has threatened her, putting his sword to her chest, and she has seen her son's blood on Richard's sword. She does not trust him and she knows the evil he is capable of. Elizabeth also knows how to get her feelings across without being controversial. She is also experienced in regards to Richard as, from the way she speaks, we can be inferred that he has neither been welcoming nor cordial to her. Although she does not trust him, she slightly compromises her moral integrity in her verbal spar with Richard and Margaret. Elizabeth and Anne both switched from or thought about switching from the house of Lancaster to the house of York in order to experience social mobility. This is a huge comment on the faithfulness of a woman to her moral stance when it comes to position on the socio-political pyramid. They were both young and could recreate themselves within society and they also lacked life experience as they had neither been queen before nor had they switch houses on a count of their own judgement. Anne has not had experiences with Richard that would make her distrust him. She only has second hand information and though he does admit to killing her husband, it can be inferred that she might slightly believe in Richard's attempts to woo her. Also I believe she is intelligent enough to see that he is an evil person and with the knowledge of Clarence being in the tower and Edward being sick, she infers that he plans to sabotage them and claim the crown. This is beneficial to her because it means that she has a clear path to the thrown. Regardless of that he is still a part of the Yorkian nobility and can provide her with protection from poverty and low social status. She ruins her moral integrity by accepting his ring and saying he teaches her how to flatter him. This could be brought into the large question of 'Did Old English society promote losing one's moral integrity to gain social mobility?' As a woman's social status depended on the man she was associated with and often, one house would rise while another falls, how would the widows and women integrate into these new societies into which they were forced by conquest? They would have to adapt, either learning to live the life of the poor or persuading men of the ruling house's nobility to begin relations with them, which is a compromise of themselves and their moral integrity.  Thus from act 1, it can be inferred that experience and role in society have a great effect on the female characters’ verbal power and the moral integrity displayed in their speech. 
-Ashley Grey