Biblical Figures and Ideals in William Shakespeare's Richard II William Shakespeare's Richard II tells the story of the fall of one monarch from the throne and the ascension of another , Henry Bullingbrook, who later became Henry IV. There is no battle between factions and the process does not take much time. The play is not action-packed and does not hold readers in any form of suspense, but rather comprises a series of quietly dignified reflections on the nature of majesty. Thus, the drama lies not in the historical facts, but in the effects of the situation on the main characters and in the parallels drawn by Shakespeare with other tales. The outrage felt by Richard and his fellow royalists was due not to a modern sense of personal loss, but to a much larger sense of loss of order, which stemmed primarily from the strictly Catholic sensibilities of the time. In Richard's time, it was believed that kings were appointed by God and "all the water of the stormy sea cannot wash away the balm of an anointed king" (III.iii, 54-5). This disparity between the perceived will of God and the way events unfold creates turmoil in the minds of the characters and the audience. Shakespeare makes it clear that this is not a simple shift in power, but rather a series of events whose meanings and effects penetrate much deeper than just the surface of the story. Although not as advanced in its staging as most of Shakespeare's other plays, Richard II's complex web of metaphor and poetry makes it perhaps the most significant and intense historical play . Richard is not the whiny villain that a little playwright might have made him out to be, but a philosopher and poet whose ideas of majesty were written down in the middle of a paper......49-50), eager to repent. his sin against Richard in Jerusalem. The historical reality of this story is simply that a bad king was replaced by a better one. However, Richard II is not simply a play about a few long-dead men; it is about betrayal, dignity, sacrifice and redemption. Seen through Shakespeare's eyes, the story is not only about the characters within it, but also the biblical figures and ideals that enrich the play, allowing this drama to speak to its readers, regardless of their location in time and space, and encouraging everyone to say, of Richard, as of Shakespeare's Christ: the king is dead, long live the king. Work CitedShakespeare, W. “The Tragedy of King Richard II”. The complete Shakespeare classic. Toronto: Harcourt Brace Johanovich, Publishers, 1997The Holy Bible, New International Version. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992.