Tomorrow in the Battle Think on Me: Ghosts, Remorse and Guilt in Shakespeare’s Richard III and Javier Marías

Abstract

The objective of this chapter is to analyze the novel Manana en la batalla piensa en mi (Javier Marias, 1994) in its relation to the Shakespearean play Richard III and its film adaptation (Laurence Olivier, 1955). A notable section of the play depicts a parade of ghosts haunting the psyche of Richard III, which constitutes the source of the exceedingly bright title of the novel. This scene also provides quotations that appear all over the narrative, in form of long nonstop sentences and paragraphs. It can be argued that Richard III, Marias' basic hypotext, provides the key for the interpretation of the novel. In what follows, I intend to analyze Marias' text as an extended reflection on guilt and remorse based on Richard III (5. 3), and as a postmodern rewriting of the ghost theme.