Richard III: Strength and Weaknesses Richard III was one of Shakespeare’s earliest and most ineffective works. The idea behind the play isn’t bad, but the play doesn’t send any strong messages that evoke emotion from the audience. Shakespeare attempted to incorporate many different literary features in the play, with varied effectiveness. Richard III showed flashes of Shakespeare’s brilliance, but greatly lacked at other times. In the play Richard III is a power hungry brother to the king that will attempt to gain the throne by any means necessary. The main featured that affect Richard III are foreshadowing; strong lead character, divine retribution, and weak develop