In the Shakespearian tragedy Richard III, Act I scene i is made a very significant and dramatic part of the play as it is the grand opening of the entire production, and is therefore used to introduce many of the fundamental ideas and begin to familiarise the audience with some of the main characters and their individual personalities. By the time of Act I scene i, the Battle of Tewkesbury between York and Lancaster has recently concluded, with the result of York as victors and having possession of the throne. Richard Duke of Gloucester is shown to have played a vital role in the victory at Tewkesbury- having been responsible for the death of Henry VI and Prince Edward (as revealed in Act I scene ii)-yet is denied the right of sovereignty by his elder brother, Edward. Richard reveals to the audience his feelings about this, and the apparent end of the war, through a soliloquy at the start of Act I scene i. After this, Richard proceeds to have an interaction with George, Duke of Clarence, who has been ordered to be taken to the tower for imprisonment by his brother, King Edward. There are three main ways that Shakespeare makes this scene significant and dramatic. Firstly, he reveals to us in the soliloquy that Richard has chosen to be a villain for the duration of the play, and gives us the reasons why. Shakespeare also shows to the audience Richard’s cunning and deceptive nature, by using Richard’s interaction with Clarence in Act I scene i. Finally, Shakespeare exposes Richard’s plans that he will put in place for the rest of the play, in order to achieve his ultimate goal. The first way Shakespeare makes Act I scene i significant and dramatic is by revealing to the audience that Richard has made a decision to be a troublemaking hellion for the rest of the play, and suggest to us why he has done so. Examples of this are where Richard soliloquises about how ‘Our stern alarums changed to merry meetings,/Our dreadful marches to delightful measures’ and ‘now, instead of mounting barbed steeds/ To fright the souls of fearful adversaries,/ He capers nimbly in a lady’s chamber/ To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.’ These quotations from Richard all suggest that he is mocking peace, and displays to the audience his deep hatred for the apparent frivolity of having a good time and messing around with women. He does this throughout lines 1 to 13, where he continuously creates juxtaposition between the gravity and importance of war and the futility of peacetime. For example, we see this in lines 6-7 where he uses the adjectives ‘stern’ and ‘dreadful’ to describe war whilst using ‘merry’ and ‘delightful’ for peace directly afterwards - making it appear worthless and unmanly. Furthermore, in the lines 11-13 Richard portrays war with intense words: ‘to fright the souls of fearful adversaries’, while next describing someone during peacetime as one who ‘capers nimbly to the lascivious pleasing of a lute’, again making us detract from the idea of peacetime, by illustrating it as effeminate and weak. We can also see this in the 1955 film of Richard III, where the actor announces the lines 1-13 with a general air of derision and contempt,