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The Tragedy of King Richard the Second: The Garden of the Kingdom

Decent Essays

Shakespeare’s plays are not always easy to define how a particular scene contributes to the overall picture of the play. Looking only at the surface of the gardening scene in act 3, scene 4, the reader merely acquires that the gardeners are speaking about binding the apricots and plucking the weeds at the Duke of York’s palace. However, the gardening essentially represents a metaphor for the rule and management of the kingdom under King Richard II. It becomes important to examine a scene such as this one to gain insight on what Shakespeare wants to convey. In this case, Shakespeare desires to reveal the perspective of the common man and the type of rule King Richard II has over the people of England. The gardeners, who act as a …show more content…

30-31). In this command, Shakespeare is referring to King Richard’s nobles as the “unruly children”. These nobles are bringing King Richard down by providing advice to him that damages his rule and England’s people. Therefore, the nobles need to be tied up to stop bringing Richard’s potential reign down.
The speech continues in scene 4, act 3 by the gardener’s suggestions in concerns to the rule of England. The next metaphor in the gardener’s speech refers to trimming the sprays so that all is equal:
Go thou, and like an executioner,
Cut off the heads of too fast growing sprays,
That look too lofty in our commonwealth:
All must be even in our government. (3.4.34-37)
In this, the gardener is commanding that the second man trim the tops of the high plants. In this way, the higher stems will become equal with the others and all plants will be at a shared height. The metaphorical analysis to this speech is that the gardener wants an execution or death of the higher nobles, the Earl of Wiltshire, Bushy, and Greene. By this, the gardener believes that England will become equal and fair. Through both of these metaphorical images through the garden, blame is being forced upon Richards’s nobles and their influence over him.
Similarity, the gardener’s speech ends with the appointed blame on the nobles, “You thus employ'd, I will go root away/The noisome weeds, which without profit suck/The soil's fertility from wholesome flowers” (3.4. 38-40). Here,

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