Journal 20: Richard and Henry
In this scene, Richard abdicates the thrown to Henry and it becomes very apparent Richard is beaten. Henry now has become the villain of the story. He brings an army against the king and then forces the king to abdicate the thrown. Even though Carlisle tries to tell Henry that essentially what he is committing is treason by overthrowing the rightful king, Henry has him arrested and will not give any attention to such claims. Henry does have support from the people, but he too is working for his own agenda and is not concerned with others' opinions. Also, Henry condemns Richard to the tower of London, which is cruel in many respects. That is his cousin, the rightful king, yet Henry shows no mercy. This is truly the time that Richard becomes the victim of Henry's wrath.
Villainous Harry.
Hasn't Harry been a villain since the beginning? He commits treason against the King by accusing him of Gloucester's death, he builds an army against the King and then he takes the throne. It seems to be a battle of right and wrong. Yes, wrong to kill someone. But the King and his God given right are right and shouldn't be questioned therefore his actions are justified. Harry may have had this in his plans all along, making him pure villain.
Megan Baeth-Brison
I agree somewhat...
I understand what point you are making regarding Harry. It is wrong of him to overthrow the king and take the throne for himself, for whatever motives that may be driving him, however, I feel more like Harry was acting against a unfit king. I think I am letting my more modern view get in the way of proper analysis, but just because Richard was given divine right by birth does not make him an honorable and truthful man, so I can understand why Harry would want to dispose of the king in order to move away from such unjust behavior. The problem comes when Harry has become king, will he be strong enough to steer away from Richards' old tendencies or will he create his own new personal grievances against the country and it's people. Veronica Sparks
the crux
In some ways, it seems that Richard realizes he isn't the best king, but in some other ways, that doesn't matter. God put him on the throne, so only God can remove him from the throne. For any human to usurp his throne, that is also an usurpation of God's acts. Hard to justify that behavior, especially way back then. Bradley
Bradley
for those paying very close
for those paying very close attention out there...I totally mean Harry, not henry...I have no idea what I am writing about anymore. Sorry for the mistake.
Veronica Sparks
Yeah, I'm with you. Harry,
Yeah, I'm with you. Harry, Henry I do most of my post late at night a everything kind of blurs together . Now that you mention it I'm sure I mixed them up too.
Harry=Henry
Shakespeare hates us. He wants to make us cry. This is why he uses four different names for this character... Bolingbroke, Harry, Henry, and the King in the very last scenes are all names for the same guy.
Anyway, I don't think he is deliberately evil. I think it's true that he's not showing Richard a lot of mercy, which I think is sad. But it sounds like most of the class would send Richard to the tower, too. I think Harry is convinced that he's doing the right thing in the long run.
Erin Kay Schulz