Search results
People also ask
What is now is the winter of Our Discontent?
Why does Shakespeare say 'Now is the winter of Our Discontent'?
What do Richard's closing words in 'now is the winter of Our Discontent' mean?
What does Shakespeare say about the summer of discontent?
Shakespeare uses the line “now is the winter of our discontent” as a way of initiating a reader’s negative opinion of Richard III. He’s a man who is discontented with his life. He’s deformed in a way that makes him miserable and influences his character.
‘Now is the winter of our discontent’ is, like many of Shakespeare’s speeches, complex and layered, so the best way to provide an analysis of the speech is to go through it, section by section, providing a summary of its meaning as we go.
‘Now is the winter of our discontent’ opens a quite stunning soliloquy by the young Richard, Duke of Gloucester in the opening line of Shakespeare’s Richard III play.
Now the winter of our troubles has been transformed into glorious summer by the ascension of my brother, King Edward IV, son of the house of York. All the clouds that had descended over our family have now been banished and returned to the sea.
“Now is the winter of our discontent. Made glorious summer by this son of York; And all the clouds that low’r’d upon our house. In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.” (Richard III, Act-I, Scene-I, Lines 1-4) Richard is not talking about unhappiness, but celebrating.
‘Now is the winter of our discontent’ express the idea that we have reached the depth of our unhappiness and that better times are ahead. What's the origin of the phrase 'Now is the winter of our discontent'? ‘ Now is the winter of our discontent’, is the first line of Shakespeare’s Richard III, 1594.
Richard’s brother Edward is the “son of York” who has brought “glorious summer” to the kingdom, and Richard’s “winter of our discontent” is the recently ended civil war. The “house” is the House of York, to which Richard and his brothers Edward and Clarence belong, and which now rules the kingdom.
