Richard ii

Shakespeare is trying to tell the audience the way Richard II rules England through imagery. In both of the scenes in this paper Shakespeare uses imagery to describe the way King Richard II has brought the country to ruin. This king needs replaced and in both speeches his bad deeds are spoken of through a metapohor of a garden. The speech in Act 2 Scene 1 is a way for Gaunt to tell Richard exactly how he feels about the way things have been going in England. In his dying breathe he describes England as a incredible garden and still shows Richard his wrongs and gives him some advice. This speech starts as “Me thinks I am a prophet new inspired” In this one line Gaunt is saying I can tell you exactly how I feel about the way you have and are ruling England. “ His rash, fierce blaze of riot can not last, for violent fires soon burn out themselves” , is the next line. In it Gaunt is telling Richard that the way he rules will not last, sooner or later it will burnout. Next we have the line “small showers last long but sudden storms are short”. This metaphor can be used today. Small light storms can rain for days, heavy hard rain barely lasts hour usually only minutes. The first part of this speech describes Richard’s vices. When we keep reading and get further into the speech he speaks of mother England. This description of England is very symbolic . It is very obvious in his description that his homeland England is very much loved. In line 40 a beautiful description truly starts and for almost 30 lines that is actually one sentence comes a famous description of England. In these lines Gaunt is describing England as some glorious sanctuary on earth, a area built by nature herself. A place that is ruled correctly and is protected. England should be a sanctuary. Gaunt is saying that England is the mother of all kings. These kings are feared by others because they are born from England and are just as famous because of their birth place. As