"Richard II" and "Macbeth"

Paper Summary:

This paper presents a comparison of William Shakespeare's "Richard II" and "Macbeth". The paper assesses to what extent these two plays endorse notions of divine right and royal absolutism. These terms are defined in order to facilitate an understanding of the thesis. The different motifs of the plays are examined in the paper.

From the Paper:

"Richard's eloquence and lack of propensity to enter into battle forms a strong contrast to Bolingbroke who is portrayed as a man of action. Shakespeare perhaps though viewed the latter as a bully as he wrestles the crown from an eloquently verbose Richard, 'With mine own hands I give away my crown, With mine own tongue deny my sacred state,'(4.1.199-200,Norton). Richard's words here abrogating his kingly, God-given status, but his actions on stage perhaps contradicting them. The semiotics of the crown are pivotal, the crown itself the symbol of a king. The crown though is a hollow void, and the mere possession of it does not confer the rightful status of a king. Bolingbroke himself is never completely at ease in his usurpation, as he acknowledges at the play's end, 'I'll make a voyage to the holy land, To wash this blood off from my guilty hand.'(5.6.47-48,IBID) The repeated Christ-like motif reiterates the injustice of Richard's fate."

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