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King Richard The Second Speech

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Recommended: Shakespeare • Striking metaphors

William Shakespeare is renowned for his dramatic use of imagery and metaphors throughout his plays. The Tragedy of King Richard the Second is no exception, as it is full of imagery, metaphors, and riddles. During Act 2, scene 1, Gaunt begins a well-known dialog depicting England as a garden, which is carried on throughout the play, both metaphorically and literally. There are multiple references to England as a garden, once like Eden, but now, a land in need of pruning, harvesting, and weeding. In the beginning of the play, Gaunt delivers one of the play’s most famous speeches that is so packed full of metaphors it must be read carefully to grasp the meaning. The subject of this speech is England, which Gaunt absolutely loves, but is concerned about. He refers to England as “this other Eden, demi paradise”, but Gaunt is speaking of the old England, before King Richard the Second’s reign. Gaunt continues on, describing England as decaying, rotting …show more content…

The gardener is gossiping, comparing the kingdom to a garden, and makes a statement referring to King Richard as a bad gardener. The gardener says how King Richard has not pruned, or weeded the garden, referring to England, and has simply not taken care of England. King Richard had left England, expecting the land to care for itself, but like a garden, the grounds must be worked, to reap a good crop. Bolingbrook refers to Bushy, Bagot, and Green as “caterpillars of the commonwealth” (2.3.11). They are lousy advisors to the King, ruining England like worms ruin a garden. Agreeing with Bolingbroke, the gardener also mentions the politics of England, calling King Richard’s advisors weeds that are draining England’s resources. The gardener says King Richard did not perform the needed weed eating, but Bolingbroke had. We learn during this passage, that even the commoners favor Bolingbroke over King

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