Richard Ii - Silence Is The Plot :: essays research papers

In this play of ch anyenge and debate, could it be possibly suggested that office 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 nonhing 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 simulated 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 Gloucesters death. "Gaunt O, excess me not, my brother Edwards son, For that I was his father Edwards son, That blood already, like the pelican, Hast thou tappd out and drunkenly carousd. My brother Gloucester, plain well-meaning soul, Whom fair befall in heaven mongst intellectual souls, May be a president and witness good That thou respectst not spilling Edwards blood." (II.i) That pa ssage simply states You may be a king, but you could bedevil 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, permit 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 manpower hate so foul a liar." (I.i) Yet with saying this remark about the King, he also begs for his innocence. "Mine honor is my life, both grow in one, Take honor from me, and my life is done. Then, dear my liege, mine honor let me try In that I live, and for that I will die." (I.i) These passages indirectly state that King Richard II is at fault for the death of his uncle. But for the reader to see this they must break down the play and search for those "hidden meanings".For the ordinary reader, who does not search, the text clearly states that the fight for innocence is distinctly between wangleingbrook and Mowbray. Such an example can be found in Act I "Bull That he Mowbray did plot the Duke of Gloucesters death,Suggest his soon-believing adversaries,And consequently, like a traitor coward,Sluicd his innocent soul through streams of blood." The rest of the dialogue converses back and forth between Bullingbrook and Mowbray, each engagement for their own innocence.