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Richard II
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Richard II
ethan The problem with Richard is that he is not really a man of action; he confronts and deals with difficulties by internalising and talking about them. Richard is not at all a man of his action. Whenever a problem arises, he internalises and talks to himself or the surrounding people, but does not do anything to resolve the problem. He is not ready to stand up and do something about it, and instead complains about the situation to himself. I think that it is because of this trait that Richard loses the kingship of England, and Bolingbroke, a man who is always ready to take action when a problem arises wins the throne over Richard. In the first scene, where Bolingbroke accuses Mowbray of killing Gloucester, Richard plays a major part in the action and at first look, I think that the reader could think that Richard is in fact a 'man of action' because of his handling of the Mowbray-Bolingbroke situation. When Richard pronounces that Mowbray and Bolingbroke shall fight to the death "At Coventry upon St. Lambert's Day" (I, i, 199), the reader could mistake this act of 'showmanship' as the act of a leader who was ready to stand up and take action when a problem arose. However, as we see later, in Act 1 scene 3, Richard's order for Mowbray and Bolingbroke's lives to answer their accusations was only to fuel Richard's own desire to be the centre of attention; it was his 'showman' quality that lead him to do this, not his ability to take action when a situation th...
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