Questions:
1. How does the beginning of ACT IV already put Bolingbrook in the place of a King in terms of the drama going on? What might Shakespeare be saying by way of this dramatic repetition of the opening of the play? Note that here, the glove throwing down is trebled. Why? To say what?
2. Note Carlisles monologue 125-127 (cf Richard III ii 54-55): What notion of Kingship is depicted by them both? Why is this important?
3. Carlisle utters a curse (not unlike John of Gaunts at Richard at the beginning of the play. We will see that curse, in the following plays, come true. What might Shakespeare be saying by this?
4. In the famous crown scene: notice who gets all the speech why ? What might Shakespeare be intimating about language and power?
5. The famous bucket metaphor: What does it mean? What comment does it make on Kingship? Is this different than Richards earlier thoughts?
6. Contrast Richard with Bolingbrooks speech.
7. What do you think of the fact that Richard asks to leave and Bolingbrook has him conveyed to the tower? Why doesnt he let him leave? How do we understand all of Bolingbrooks earlier speech and humility towards Richard what is the play saying about hypocrisy and ambition? Do you think that Bolingbrook only wanted his title and inheritance restored as he claimed?
ACT V
1. Again why Queen Isabel here how does she add to the play when dramatically rather unimportant to the plot? What function might she have in swaying the audience? Explain.
2. What does Richard tell Northumberland how has Richard become wise?
3. Then we have this crazy scene York, the letter incriminating Aumerle against Henry and Duchess of York: Why is this scene in the play? What do we learn in this scene? And why do you think York who had been a loyal subject of Richards, is now ready to kill his own son for a crime against Henry what is at stake here? What does it show about bonds and human nature?
4. How do we read Richards last speech in the prison?
5. What is the function of the groom?
6. How does Richard behave? And how would this have affected the audience?
7. What do you make of Henrys last act of banishing Richards murderer? How does this function in the dramatic arc of the play?
8. How does your view of Richard change through the play what allows that to happen?
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