Consider the role of fortune in the tragedy of King Richard

             Q. Consider the role of fortune in the tragedy of King Richard 2
             A. One of the main themes running through Richard the second is the idea of the failure of a King's duties to his country. The play examines the changing fortune and loss of kingship from Richard to Bolingbroke due to his neglect of time and duty. However, both characters undergo a remarkable transition in their attitudes and furthermore, both can be seen to be wrong in trying to claim what is not rightfully their own. In the early stages of the play Richard takes Bolingbroke's lawful inheritance away which arguably marks the beginning of his own downfall. In doing this he is undermining the very notion of how he himself became King by denying someone else their natural inheritance. This is pointed out to him by York although the advice is ignored:
             "Take Hereford's rights away, and take from Time his charters and his customary rights....
             Be not thyself , for how art thou a King but by fair sequence and succession?"
             However, there are various other instances in the play when Richard's supposedly unquestionable power and judgement are called into question. He allows Bolingbroke and Mowbray to go through all the ceremony of their duel before subsequently cancelling it and also changes the time of Bolingbroke's banishment. This does not go unnoticed and Bolingbroke appears to question the casual and flippant way Richard reduces his sentence:
             "Four lagging winters and four wanton springs
             End in a word such is the breath of Kings".
             Consequently, the next scene implies the qualities that Bolingbroke possessed which would seem to be ideal for a King. He is seen to be popular with the common people which shows up the various qualities that Richard himself lacks. His popularity is clearly a threat to Richard who obviously relishes in his banishment:
             "Observed in his courtship to the common people,
             How he did seem t...

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