|
|
<- Previous Page |
First Page
| Next Page ->
MonkeyNotes-Richard II by William Shakespeare
Table of Contents
| Printable Version
OVERALL ANALYSES
CHARACTERS
Richard II
Richard's character dominates the play. The transfer of power
serves only as a kind of background to the figure of Richard
himself. Shakespeare's chief interest lies in Richard's personality
and his reaction to events. The play is in fact a personal tragedy,
which focuses on the decline of the fortunes of its protagonist,
rather than on the course of events or the development of any
abstract philosophy or idea. At the beginning of the play, Richard
is shown to be outwardly self-confident but inwardly corrupt, as
he is implicated in the murder of his own uncle, Gloucester. He
thus has the legal but not the moral right to govern because his
hands are stained with royal blood. Richard is a poetic and
intensely charming man but a fatally weak monarch. He is ill
equipped to carry out the responsibilities of the office of kingship
to which his birth has entitled him. He fails in the observance of
his royal duties because he is unable to follow any decisive course
of action and changes his mind arbitrarily. His character is
essentially fixed from the start and is gradually revealed as the
play progresses from scene to scene. There is not much significant
development, as in the case of Bolingbroke.
Richard's character is closely modeled on the conventional
features of a tragic protagonist as outlined by Aristotle. Richard's
tragic flaw is his unshakable belief in his own quasi-divinity. He
also suffers from self-destructive arrogance, which the Greeks
called hubris (excessive pride). At the beginning of the play,
Richard's glamour is physical: he is like the king in a tapestry,
dazzling and bewitching to everybody he looks upon. The
opening scene of the play shows him in his dual roles as king and
man trying to settle a quarrel between Bolingbroke and Mowbray
over the question of Gloucester's death. This scene is very sketchy
as far as Richard's character is concerned. He does not say much
and what he does say is in his role as a king arbitrating between
the warring lords. He conducts himself excellently at first, when
he promises impartiality to both the men. Richard tries his utmost
to seek a peaceful solution to the dispute and dissuades both
Bolingbroke and Mowbray from accepting the challenge of a
duel. But he suddenly changes his mind, showing his impulsive
nature, and orders a trial by combat, thereby contradicting his
earlier aim of avoiding bloodshed. When the day of the duel
arrives, Richard observes all the formalities associated with the
tournament until the very last moment, when he dramatically
throws down his warder as an indication to stop the proceedings.
He has again abruptly changed his mind. The manner in which he
stops the duel testifies to his love of drama. In a Machiavellian
move Richard gets rid of both Bolingbroke and Mowbray by
banishing them: Bolingbroke for ten years and Mowbray for life.
Richard is both a bully and a coward. He cowers when faced with
difficulties and banishes the two men for no concrete reason.
From this point onwards, Richard's character undergoes a decline.
He is shown to be morally depraved and high-handed. He farms
his realm for taxes and issues blank charters to the wealthy
nobles. Richard behaves arrogantly to his dying uncle, Gaunt, and
dismisses him as a "lunatic lean-witted fool." He unscrupulously
confiscates the property that belongs by the laws of succession to
Bolingbroke. As York points out, Richard is himself engineering
his own downfall by violating the laws of primogeniture upon
which his own claim to kingship depends. His seizure of Gaunt's
property to finance the Irish wars seals his fate and marks the
beginning of a decline from which there is no turning back.
Table of Contents
| Printable Version
<- Previous Page |
First Page
| Next Page ->
MonkeyNotes-Richard II by William Shakespeare
|
|
