Do you think that our lives are set out before we are born, and things are ‘just meant to be’? That’s what we mean by ‘fate’, a force beyond our control that determines our future. Gabriela has been thinking about this since her English class held a discussion on the topic, and she shares her thoughts with us.
Nearly a century after Richard’s death, Shakespeare describes Richard as a ‘bottled spider’, a hunchback. Since Shakespeare’s time writers and artists through history have imagined Richard as a terrifying figure, whose physical disabilities are signs of his cruel inner nature.
Some historians argue that Shakespeare must have been writing propaganda to please his queen, Elizabeth I, whose grandfather Henry VII defeated Richard in battle. These historians argue that Richard’s ‘hunchback’ is an insult made up by Shakespeare, but until now, we haven’t been able to know what the truth is.
