King Richard II | Conclusion

King Richard II Conclusion

Richard II is a play filled with political controversy. The conflict between Richard and Bolingbroke and all they represent remains unresolved in more than one sense. Critics will continue to debate whether Richard is weak or evil, overthrown or self-deposed, and whether Bolingbroke's motivations are political or personal and whether he 15 a usurper or the man who saved England from ruin. Similarly, the conflict lives on within Shakespeare's tetralogy, for although Richard dies at the end of Richard II, his prophesy that under Bolingbroke's rule civil unrest will plague England is made manifest in Henry IV, Parts One and Two. The tensions are only temporarily laid to rest in Henry V.