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Definition of Irony
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how they actually are. If this seems like a loose definition... read full definition
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how they actually are. If this... read full definition
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how... read full definition
Act 3, Scene 2
Explanation and Analysis—Wounds by Flattery:
King Richard II paradoxically suggests that flattering but false words are more wounding than open hostility. When his loyal ally, the Duke of Aumerle, urges him to remain optimistic in the face of Henry Bolingbroke’s rebellion, the King lashes out at him, stating:
He does me double wrong
That wounds me with the flatteries of his tongue.
At this point in the play, Bolingbroke has not yet declared open hostility towards the King but instead maintains that he respects the King’s authority and merely wishes to free him from his corrupt ministers. Richard argues that these superficial “flatteries” uttered by Bolingbroke and the other rebelling lords, made in respect of his status as King, have done him “double wrong.”
Rather than comforting him, then, these seemingly kind words have hurt him all the more by reminding him of the proper respect that he is due as King despite his forthcoming dethronement. Richard suggests that if Bolingbroke were to speak honestly and openly announce his desire to oppose the King, then this would be less injurious to him as it would not cause him the greater insult of deception. There is also a great deal of irony in the King’s speech here, as listening to the false words of flatterers such as Bushy, Bagot, and Green directly contributed to Richard’s downfall.
Related Themes:
Act 4, Scene 1
Explanation and Analysis—All Hail!:
In a speech heavily laden with verbal irony, Richard, who is being dethroned in favor of Henry Bolingbroke, insults Bolingbroke and the other defecting lords by pretending that he needs more time to learn how to “flatter” a King, having until this very moment been one himself. Speaking before Bolingbroke and his allies, Richard states:
I hardly yet have learned
To insinuate, flatter, bow, and bend my knee.
Give sorrow leave awhile to tutor me
To this submission. Yet I well remember
The favors of these men. Were they not mine?
Did they not sometime cry “All hail” to me?
Richard’s language is deeply sarcastic, accusing the defectors of having until now flattered him as King. He pretends to be confused, as if he has some faint recollection of these men having treated him as King, when in fact he knows perfectly well that these very same men were, until this scene, his subjects. His request for more time to learn how to treat a monarch—"to insinuate, flatter, bow, and bend my knee"—is intended both to shame the lords by reminding them of their previous conduct towards him and to highlight the hollowness of these deferential gestures.
His irony emphasizes the betrayal of the defectors and the falseness of their previous respect for the crown. Though Richard has surrendered the throne, he mocks and undermines Bolingbroke’s victory. After all, if those same lords once said “All hail” to Richard, how can Bolingbroke truly trust them when they say “All hail” to him?
Related Themes:
Act 5, Scene 5
Explanation and Analysis—Times Wastes Me:
Imprisoned after his dethronement, Richard, formerly King Richard II, ironically states that time itself could use him as a clock, rather than him using a clock to measure time. In a soliloquy addressed to nobody in particular, he states:
I wasted time, and now doth time waste me;
For now hath time made me his numb’ring clock.
My thoughts are minutes, and with sighs they jar
Their watches on unto mine eyes, the outward watch,
Whereto my finger, like a dial’s point,
Is pointing still in cleansing them from tears.
Richard's soliloquies while alone in prison are deeply meditative, reflecting upon both his present conditions and the broader uncertainty of his life as a deposed monarch. In this speech Richard describes the sense of despair that he has experienced in prison after being stripped of his crown and separated from his wife. While he had once "wasted time" by failing to secure his kingship, he now imagines, ironically, that time "doth waste" him, as he has nothing to do while in prison except count the minutes.
Further, while ordinarily a person uses a clock to measure time, he suggests with some heavy irony that time has turned him into a "numb'ring clock" as his "thoughts are minutes" and his “sighs” are so regular that they could be used to measure time with the mechanical precision of a clock or watch. Locked away in prison, Richard has no way to determine the time except by using his own internal emotional states as a guide.
