SOURCE: Kurtz, Martha A. “‘Mock Not’: The Problem of Laughter in Richard II.” University of Toronto Quarterly 65, no. 4 (fall 1996): 584-99.
In the following essay, Kurtz discusses how the element of laughter corresponds to the personalities of Richard and Bolingbroke. According to the critic, Richard's laughter, laced with arrogant elitism and mockery, signifies an aristocratic insecurity which culminates in his deposition; by contrast, Bolingbroke embraces the carnivalesque, popular laughter of the common man to establish political order after usurping the crown.
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