Richard II Literary Elements

drama; history play

England, 1398-1400

There is no singular narrator or point of view expressed in the play.

formal, dark, inauspicious

The play makes it difficult to discern a particular protagonist or antagonist. Both Richard II and Henry Bolingbroke are endowed with redeemable and unsavory qualities.

The central conflict of the play is Henry Bolingbroke's return to England with an army, which ultimately leads to Richard's loss of the crown and a new king on the throne.

The climax of the play occurs when Bolingbroke deposes Richard and declares himself Henry IV of England.

York's advice to Richard not to seize the lands of John of Gaunt foreshadows the eventual conflict that grows out Richard's decision: Bolingbroke returns to England to claim what is his and take the throne from Richard.

When York tells Richard that a violation of the inheritance law could affect him as well, he is actually saying that his own birthright as king of England could easily be called into question after such a violation.

The play makes frequent allusions to English history and the House of Plantagenet (of which Richard is the final king).

Important imagery in the play includes suns, gardens, physical age, and trees/branches.

The central paradox of the play is that Richard, who adores the power he holds as king, makes no effort to defend that power when it becomes clear that Bolingbroke is invading England. Richard's passivity is a testament to his weakness as a ruler and his skewed notion that he is anointed by God and therefore protected no matter what happens.

Richard thrusts himself into a parallel relationship with Bolingbroke when he seizes Gaunt's lands, thereby challenging the very inheritance laws that make his claim to the throne legitimate.

"The crown" is a metonymical way of referring to the king and his court. This phrase is still in existence today.

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