While
reading the fourth act of this play I am struck with several uncertainties.
First of all, we are brought, again, to the ongoing debate of Divine King vs. “Elected
King”. Bolingbroke is once again attempting to take Richard off of the throne
and deem himself as rightful King of England. We understand that during this
time period, the King was seen as the agent for God, someone who is easily accessible
to the deity so that the subjects can have one line connecting them to the man
above. Bolingbroke is attempting to break this long known tradition and within
this scene we understand that to justify his reasons for taking Richard off of
the throne include a list of crimes against the kingdom “That by confessing
them, the souls of men/ May deem that you are worthily deposed.” (line 216-217)
Richard at this point says that his eyes are full of tears and he cannot
possibly read this list of crimes that he has so committed. He gives endless
reasons for why he should not read this list, however his reasons are met by
Bolingbroke.
A
looking-glass is called for so that Richard may “see” himself. This is where I
am faced with another uncertainty. While, I am not sure as to whether or not it
would be proper for Richard to have the crown taken away from him due to the
long standing Divine tradition; I am also unsure as to whether or not Richard
is right for the thrown at all, and if not maybe he should have the crown taken
away from him. He gives excuse after excuse that he cannot read this list,
which would make it seem that he does want to keep the crown/his kingdom.
However, when he looks into the glass he is ashamed by what he sees and upon
shattering that glass, I can assume, gives up the throne. There seems to be
little fight within Richard and that concerns me. A king requires one to be
strong, specifically strong-willed. For most of the back-half of this play
Richard has seemed more of a weak character and his kingdom seems to be easily
ripped of his hands, regardless of the Divine right that he supposedly has.
Reading towards the end of this play and seeing Bolingbroke, aka King Henry IV
take the crown. I am still uncertain as to whether or not I am upset by this
long standing tradition being so easily broken. While I do understand that
tradition is important, specifically religious tradition within that time
period, I did not seem to root for Richard as I believe I should have. So I
pose the question to the class: Do you think Richard deserved to have his crown
taken away from him (aka he should have fought more) or perhaps was this out of
his power and we do not blame Richard for the rise of King Henry IV?
3 comments:
I believe that Richard's time was up, he had wasted too much time in pleasantries and formalities that he overlooked the real responsibilities that came with kingship after a while. I believe his main downfall was not that he was lazy or not right for kingship, but after a while he became lazy because his mindset changed from "I am the King and must take care of my people" to "I am the King cause GOD said I was king and that's it the people must tolerate me no matter what" and that just changed everything for him because people will only be fooled for oh so long. His attitude may not have been like this from the start but eventually caved into this form of carelessness which gave him the ability to do as he wished whenever he wished (if it was to his liking and in his favor)
I agree with the points you made here. In a lot of ways, he seemed to just keep making excuses to delay the inevitable and I also agree with the other commenter, Richard's time was just plain up. There is an interesting connect between being unable to see what he must read because of the tears, and wanting a mirror to be able to see himself, this wanting to see when he proclaimed he couldn't moments ago strikes me as interesting and makes it out to be an excuse. I fully agree with this post when you say a king should be strong, and Richard has proven himself not to be that until the throne is taken from him, he does not fight until its gone so perhaps this also supports that his time is up.
I reiterate what both commenters said about Richard's time being up. I think the whole subject of Divine Right is an incredibly interesting one because in itself it can be debated for ages and I think Shakespeare knew that too, which is why he uses it so often in his history plays and in this one as well. It's another example of why we still are able to talk about so many of his works in current times. As for whether Richard "deserved" to have his crown taken from him, I don't know whether it was really a matter of him not fighting enough, but I definitely agree with the other commenters in that for a large portion of the play he is portrayed as rather weak; in this scene especially, he really seems to kind of crumble as a human being.
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