I will say when I first started getting ready to read Richard II, I thought oh it will be a piece of cake, I can just zoom right through. Although it still did not take me long to read, I took my time because its a very interesting play, one that I will say needs to be read at an even pace so the reader can understand what is happening because if you just zoom right on through, you will miss some important parts. Saying that, I did take my time to understand this play but listening in class, I still missed a few points being made although I probably did get the gist of things.
I really enjoyed reading this play and seeing how Shakespeare seems to be speaking about us in this modern time. I had a few favorite lines in this play. ACT 1. SC. 4, lines 60-61: Now put it, God, in the physician’s mind, To help him to his grave immediately! and line 65: Pray God we may make haste and come too late. In these lines, I feel like we do this a lot in our lives, if someone is someplace we have to go and we don’t like them or just do not wish to see them, then we will most likely say lets go but hopefully they will be gone by the time we arrive. Also, Shakespeare includes God in these lines because if you have noticed, we say please God or something like that to ask for our prayers to be answered whether they are futile or not.
Act 3. Sc. 2. line 105: The worst is death, and death will have his day. I feel like he is saying that no matter what, death will always come and if a punishment is to be for some terrible crime then death is the worst punishment to be gave.
We were talking about how we feel for King Richard today in class and I will say that that is true, I do feel for him. Here he is just trying to do what he believes is the right thing but its not. Yes, he was a bad person to say that he hopes Gaunt would die before he had a chance to see him but who isn't a bad person? We all have flaws and so does King Richard. But its kinda sad to think that while he is being forced one way, his Queen/wife is being forced another way. I know that if I loved someone like they love each other then I wouldn't want to be away from them either. In ACT 5. SC. 1, King Richard’s queen says she will go with him because she does not want to be away from him and I found this so sweet.
Although I feel for King Richard, I do like Bolingbroke because he is very clever. If we think about it, just like Dr. Plough said today in class, Bolingbroke just came back from his banishment and with one line, he becomes King. But if we look back, we can see that he knew no one would do anything to get rid of him and he said he was only back to claim what was his but maybe that’s what he meant, that the kings position was his to claim since that seems to be what he is after for the most part even though he says it isn’t.
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