The Portrait of Villainy

The thing I found most interesting about this reading occurred in the second chapter, when Grant and the Surgeon are discussing Richard III, who is also- of course- our key point of discussion in class as of last time. Grant is examining a portrait of the late King, and invites his Surgeon to do so as well. As they do, the following exchange occurs:

‘Who is it?’ the surgeon asked.
‘Richard the Third.’
‘Really? That’s interesting.’
‘Did you know that he had a withered arm?’
‘Had he? I didn’t remember that. I thought he was a hunchback.’
‘So he was.’
‘What I do remember is that he was born with a full set of teeth and ate live frogs. Well, my diagnosis seems to be abnormally accurate.’

I immediately found myself relating this to an issue I'd seen raised online earlier about Disney; specifically about how the villains are often malformed or bearing unique, striking features in comparison to the protagonists, who often feel rather generic and cookie cutter. Take for example withered and eerie appearance of the Queen from Snow White when she disguises herself as an old woman, the muscular, big-jawed and big-toothed face of Clayton from Tarzan, or the gaunt, dark-toned and (obviously) scarred form of Scar from The Lion King.

With the occasional exception, of course.

Obviously, there's no direct relation, since as far as I'm aware there's no Disney film about Richard III. (Not yet, anyway.) But it did make me think about how so often we twist the image of someone we perceive as evil into some sort of crooked, twisted creature whose outsides reflect their darker insides. The idea of Richard III as having a hunched back, a withered arm, and eating live frogs paints him as more monster than man, a caricature of his perceived villainy. I just found it quite funny that this odd description of Richard makes him appear almost as though he was an animated Disney villain, or a monster of legend. I feel like it says a lot about how we view villainous figures that we turn them into such deformed, hideous things when in reality they may not have been nearly so twisted- after all, I've certainly never heard about Richard III having a withered arm/hunch back/an appetite for live frogs. It could certainly be true, but I've still never heard it before.