Appreciating Shakespeare Video & Intro to Hollow Crown’s Richard II Production

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Appreciating Shakespeare

by Evan Mantyk

Why do people think Shakespeare is so great? Why do they keep returning to his plays 400 years later? And for other classical literature, even thousands of years later? Hi, I’m Evan Mantyk, teacher of literature and history, and in this video I will try to answer these questions. Whether or not you agree, of course, is entirely up to you.

My answer, to put it simply, is that in these works, you get to see our society at its best, which is actually quite beautiful and good. There are still bad guys of course, as well as good guys, bad deeds, as well as good ones, but the backdrop or the default setting, so to speak, is one that favors truth, it favors an inherent sense of justice, traditional kindness, and overall beauty and order in this life and the next.
In order to understand what that means, first take a look at where we are today in terms of society’s social structure. This is the basic widely accepted mainstream understanding. If you have more money, you go up. Simple. Of course, people will have plenty of different opinions floating around about this, but this is essentially the lowest common denominator that most people would agree on. Lower class, middle class, upper class. More money means higher status.

The problem with this is that it is kind of boring and even depressing. If you don’t have money, you may very likely want to find an escape in taking drugs or do other things you’ll regret. This societal framework also naturally leads people to do bad things. If they can make money, no matter how they do it, they can move up. If they can sell drugs, steal, practice unethical business or corrupt politics, then they can move up. Hence you have a lot of culture that celebrates these kinds of money-increasing activities, as you can see in this next slide.

A rapper celebrates drug dealing, a video game celebrates stealing and cop killing, and The Godfather movie franchise celebrates being part of a criminal family to gain money, and is even ranked the third greatest movie of all time by some prestigious sounding organization called the American Film Institute.
So, this model that society is basically operating on is sad, boring, and also clearly sick.
What does a healthy, uplifting society look like then? Let’s take a look.

It’s a lot more interesting for starters. We have this giant beautiful thing called Heaven looming overhead for example, imagine the sun and stars one side and the crack of lightning and flooding rains on the other. There are beings who mysteriously live there and operate from there regardless of what happens in our little ordinary society.

Additionally, instead of boring old money being the only thing that seems to matter, we have power, meaning influence and fame, and we have morality and virtue. In other words, those people at the top of society are supposed to be there—not because they clawed their way up or won the lottery but because they were truly good people, or at the very least someone in their family was, their father, or grandfather or whoever.

The King or Emperor at the top is closest to Heaven with the most power, but any problems with his moral character are going to be exposed far more than they would be for the classes below him. His errors will have negative effects on his kingdom beneath him and he will be held responsible by this structure. There may even be punishment from Heaven: terrible weather, earthquakes, diseases, famine, drought, and so forth. To put it another way, the whole universe is connected through a form of currency that you have direct control over, and that is your morality, your ability to do what is right and be good in the traditional sense.

This is a much more meaningful world. This also means you may have people of royal or noble blood who don’t have much money at all, who are in big trouble, yet they have a kind of innate power and they try to accomplish great deeds because of their higher morality.

In culture, you can see this in a few ways, such as the story of young King Arthur being totally unknown until he pulls a sword out of a stone. In the East, there is the famous figure of the Three Kingdoms figure Liú Bèi. He is from the royal family but is really a nobody at the beginning and is just mending shoes. Other examples are King Alfred who is stuck cooking and burning cakes when he is driven out of his home by Vikings, and the French Emperor Napoleon exiled and essentially under house arrest. Whether it is King Arthur in the West or Liu Bei in the East, money is not that important, it is the great deeds these people are meant to accomplish, their morality, and the amazing abilities that come along with it.
Going back to the previous slide, something else to note is that there is even a whole independent and parallel track for professional religious people that is supposed to stand outside of the ordinary day-to-day workings of life and is closer to Heaven. These are the priests and monks on the right side here. Of course, there are priest and monks today too, but they are no longer universally recognized and given respect. So again, this traditional system is far more interesting and even uplifting.

This is the world of Shakespeare and classical literature.

Altogether, if you can force yourself to stick around for long enough, you will find that this world is an enchanting and enlightening place such that, the longer you are here, the more you start to realize it is quite similar to our own society and explains much of what plays out in today’s society; it’s only that it is hidden behind an almost endless array of confusing details of modern life, different opinions, and sick social phenomena.

This is why people keep going back to Shakespeare 400 years later and classical literature even thousands of years later. Everything just seems truer, more beautiful, and more meaningful.

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Hollow Crown Season 1 Episode 1, Richard II

This video is a quick introduction to the BBC’s Hollow Crown Season I, Episode I, which is the same as William Shakespeare’s history play Richard II.

As I’ve said, this is called a history play, so that it follows the real history pretty closely. So then, in history, who was Richard II? Richard II was the King of England in the 14th century. Richard was king since he was just 10 years old and, when our story begins, he is around 30 years old. He has been in that position at the top of society’s pyramid for 20 years. I discussed this pyramid in my previous video on appreciating Shakespeare. As the king, Richard II has the most power, but he is also expected to have some of the highest morality and take care of the whole country. He is expected to uphold those high ideals of society at the time that place him closest to Heaven, and he is expected to use his mighty royal powers for good. But alas, despite what seems to be a sincerity to do what is right at times, problems with his moral character seem to be catching up with him. There is fighting both inside Richard’s kingdom and fighting coming from outside.

The inside fighting is between his cousin, the popular and virtuous Henry Bolingbroke, and another nobleman, Thomas Mowbray, who has worked closely with Richard in the past. He’s basically a good friend of the king, so you have a blood-related cousin on one hand and a good friend on the other. Who will Richard choose to believe? This tension spills out directly into our first scene.
Meanwhile, outside of his kingdom, war with Ireland is looming.

What will King Richard II do? What role will the hand of Heaven play in all of this? In particular, at a key moment in his life, does the wind, a mysterious force beyond human control, help or delay Richard’s arrival?

You’ll have to watch and find out for yourself.

Ultimately, we get a sense that Richard is a villain, yet he also has many admirable features about him. We see in him ourselves or someone we know, since we all have both a good side and a bad one. When we are comfortable with life and want things our way and everyone seems to say that everything should go our way, yet somehow the real concrete circumstances shoved in front of us are undeniably and uncontrollably not going our way. This is Richard II’s very realistic situation. Meanwhile, Bolingbroke is quiet, sincere, and almost insignificant in personality. He never grabs our attention for too long like Richard does yet he slowly rises, providing a perfect foil, or comparison, to Richard.

Watching these characters, perhaps we delight that we are not them, but we also become wiser from their experiences, seeing through our own emotions and failures and getting a clearer glimpse at what is truly beautiful and good in life.

…and with that, please enjoy the performance.

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