Rhetoric in Shakespeare's Richard II

Rhetoric in Shakespeare’s Richard II

It has been agreed upon by many scholarly sources that Richard II is one of Shakespeare’s plays containing the most rhetoric. As discussed in class, rhetoric is “the art of using words to persuade” (handout). Since there are so many angles to Richard II, and so many people trying to persuade different things, rhetoric is present quite often. The rhetoric in Richard II is every effective in making the play’s meaning as effective as it is. Looking closely at Bolingbroke’s monologue in Act III, i, 1-30, one can truly see how strongly an importance rhetoric has in this play.
Shakespeare uses many devices to strengthen the rhetorical power of Richard II. In Bolingbroke’s monologue, he uses several of these devices to really stress what he is saying and to persuade the audience to go along with what he is saying. . Bolingbroke’s monologue was spoken to an audience who at the start of his speech was most likely not on hi...