Richard II - Silence Is The Plot

Richard II - Silence is the Plot

In this play of challenge and debate, could it be possibly suggested that King Richard had a part to play in the murder of his uncle the Duke of Gloucester? Could the reader possibly pick up this assumption having known nothing about the play? These are all factors that one must find by reading in between the lines, noticing and understanding the silence that is exchanged. For the silence is just as important as the speech.

Why is it assumed that King Richard II has anything to do with the murder? Let us review a scene from the play were Gaunt accuses Richard of being accountable for Gloucester's death.

"Gaunt: O, spare me not, my [brother] Edward's son,
For that I was his father Edward's son,
That blood already, like the pelican,
Hast thou tapp'd out and drunkenly carous'd.
My brother Gloucester, plain well-meaning soul,
Whom fair befall in heaven 'mongst happy souls,
May be a president and witness good
That thou respect'st not spilling Edwards blood." (II.i)

That passage simply states: You may be a king, but you could have respected my brother enough not to kill him. There is also another quote were Mowbray indirectly suggests that the King is also at fault.

"Mow: O, let my sovereign turn away his face,
And bid his ears a little while be deaf,
Till I have told this slander of his blood,
How God and good men hate so foul a liar." (I.i)

Yet with saying this remark about the King, he also begs for his innocence.

...

Richard II - Silence Is The Plot

Login

Join