#6 - Grass is Greener, Richard II & Sonnet 15

Richard II Blog – Grass is Greener

Sonnet 15 describes the fleeting perfection of life, “holds in perfection but a little moment”, and the innate desire to live despite its impermanence. It describes, the world taking away from youth coming closer to expiry, and concludes “I engraft you new” which will, in its own way, sustain something that is technically unsustainable. This preservation in the form of writing is precisely what we can call history. Shakespeare has embodied the engrafted through his history plays which preserve the encapsulation of his society, people, and politic.

He has found solidity within the world’s instability, but most importantly the importance of living a fulfilling life and not one we see will play out in Richard II:

“Vaunt in their youthful sap, at height decrease,

And wear their brave state out of memory;”

While time is decaying, Richard II is decaying himself and the realm with it.

In Richard II, everyone is longing for something else, someone else’s (fill in blank), or something that is not there. No one is truly content. From the beginning, Richard has banished his own cousin Bolingbroke out of sheer jealousy. This type of illegitimate and weak-minded decisions rots his kingship and engulfs his politic with personal desires (body). By allowing his own desire for control come before his own subjects he loses the people’s trust in him and ultimately leads himself to his death. Bolingbroke/Henry IV fills in this space by catering to the needs of the common people, gaining him kingship that is created by legitimacy over birthright. Bolingbroke, at a time, actually desires not only for kingship but also for Richard’s death. When Richard takes money to finance a war in Ireland, we see he has completely disowned any sort of desire for a good society, instead only his own immediate, fleeting, needs. Which raises important and rebellious political questions and promotes a focus upon capability rather than inheritance where they become kinged strictly by tradition rather than actual desire to rule.  John of Gaunt’s comparison to the tending of the garden reveals the work that is entailed, he curses Richard on Gaunt’s own desire for good politic. The people desire this good politic as well.

The microcosm speech in the prison in Act V.4 at Pomfret Castle cell metaphorically parallels the isolated feeling that Richard is experiencing due to his previous actions. He reflections on the dissatisfaction of everyone:

 “Thus play I in one person many people, and none contented.”

His inhibited thoughts are at war with his desires. He feels the tear between his individuality “I” and his Kinged “I.”  In the end, he concludes, “Til nothing shall be pleased Til eased with being nothing.” Exton murders him, and now Henry IV is to lead, but we will see that his desires will get in the way as well. Though his desire is fulfilled as king, he now has to live/act in the way he promised. 

#5

How far should one take their individual desires?

Society as a whole is only reestablished after both Romeo and Juliet, the individualists, are dead. However, this new reestablishment is more stable than before in that it the feuding between the Capulets and Monteguts have been put aside. The individuals that fought out for what they believe in made a change in the way society was run. Did they ‘win’?, They could only find what the wanted when it was too late, but it did however make a shift in the way the society would work there on out. Love was the way they individuated themselves from the confines of society. One’s freedom will always outweigh anything else. In Albert Camus’s Notebooks he notes, “In ancient drama, the one who pays is always the one who is right—Prometheus, Oedipus, Orestes, etc.”
Romeo wants love. Juliet wants love. This desire will withstand all—tromping family, disobeying society, and without it, the only other option is not live at all. Is it better to follow one’s individual desires even if their family and their community/society says it is wrong? How far can one’s own gut or desires be trusted?

Along with this deep-set desire in Romeo, we also see the death of a former desire for a new one in the Chorus: “now old desire doth in his deathbed lie…” in replacement for “young affection gapes to be his heir” which presents his new love for Juliet over his affection to Rosaline. One desire has replaced another.  While his love for Juliet is said to be stronger, this swift switch raises questions of temporary versus permanence in desire – how can one trust them?

Friar Lawrence is an important weighted figure in the play. He also goes against these manmade rules, seemingly not for himself, for Romeo and Juliet though his true intentions seem to be a little unclear. He is the dominating religious figure who marries them, but also who, whether indirectly or directly, brings them to their demise by staging the poison. The friar desires to do what is ‘right’ in his eyes along with quell the problems in Verona.

Though the story uses love as its variable, it has much more to do with forbidden or individual wants than marriage or young/first love. Author Andre Gide, is quoted “The great danger is to let oneself be monopolized by a fixed idea.”

Shakespeare shows that the framework of society should constantly be questioned; constantly open, and that change can be a good and necessary agent.