The Great Chain of Being is a religious-related worldview. In this concept, all things in the universe are arranged in a strict order of a hierarchical chain. From the highest, God, to the lowest, minerals, each level is strictly unable to be changed, as this order is a showcase of an eternal and stable divine will of God. According to the Great Chain of Being, if any section in this chain is broken, the entire status of the universe will be affected. In Richard II, we can clearly see this kind of hierarchy. Richard is at the top of humanity. It is not because he is moral or just because he is the king, but he is chosen by God. The reader can see he made many bad decisions, but can still sense that even with his poor performance, he is still in a divine institution. This is the complexity created by the Great Chain of Being in the play, which made the audience wonder how people should react when someone in a divine position is flawed, and what led him to this situation.

In the play, Richard II seems to have been particularly fond of emphasizing that he was anointed with holy oil. In that era, during the coronation of a king, the church would anoint certain parts of the king’s body with chrism oil. The oil acts as a symbol of divinity. It not only represented the king’s identity but also God’s mark. When giving up his crown to Bolingbroke, Richard said:” With mine own tears I wash away my balm, /with mine own hands I give away my crown, /with mine own tongue deny my sacred state, /with mine own breath release all duteous rites.” (Shakespeare, Act 4 Scene 1) Richard is undoubtedly the one and only one chosen by God, and no one in this country should be able to turn against him. Richard is not only whining about the loss of his throne, but rather viewing his loss as a loss of identity. The action he described seems like a way to strip away the divine mark he once owned. Richard repeatedly emphasized that his God-blessed identity is because he sees the identity of a king not just as a simple political position, but as a forever-established identity affirmed by religion. This process made him believe himself to be the most sacred of all humankind. For Richard, this giving away of the crown was like an unshakeable identity being doubted and torn apart under political pressure.

In the Welsh setting, Richard’s self-doubt further reveals his understanding of his identity. He sees himself as a superior being, and when Aumerle reminds him of who he is, Richard immediately replies, “I had forgotten myself; am I not king?" (Shakespeare Act 3, Scene 4). For Richard, his self is just a king. Without the king’s identity, he is nobody. He never sees himself as an ordinary human being with the title of king. Rather, to him, his existence and power are inseparable. Since the world and his blood gave him the title of king, the core of his existence is the noble king. He then says, “Is not the king’s name twenty thousand names?" (Shakespeare Act 3, Scene 4). He is implying that the king’s name represents all the people in the land. While an ordinary person’s name just represents their body and life. For Richard, however, His name has power beyond any individual, representing a stronger authority. He thought he was a fellow of God, elevating the king’s position to a place extremely close to God. All his actions were righteous because he represented God. He called anyone who betrayed him as Judas. The rebellion of any subject was more than resistance against a king or kingdom, but a tearing apart of the entire divine order. His feelings of betrayal were so extreme because, in his eyes, his subjects were not disloyal to him personally, but were offending the entire Great Chain of Being.

This Great Chain of Being system also has an important principle. The higher the level of existence, the more characteristic it possesses. For example, a stone only exists, and plants, in addition to existence, also possess life. Animals add movement and desire, and humans add rationality and spirituality. When Richard returned to the English land on the Walshe shore, being reminded that he was a king, he said, “Look not to the ground, / Ye favourites of a king: are we not high? / High be our thoughts." (Shakespeare, Act 3, Scene 2) His words immediately give hierarchy shape, representing the ground and the heights. In this play, Shakespeare frequently uses terms like “up" and “down" to represent this. The ground represents humiliation, and the common people, while the heights represent royal power and dignity. Richard’s attitude towards England was as if it were an object with no life, like the final layer of that chain. Minerals are solid and stable forms. Richards’s understanding of the kingdom is somewhat similar. When he came back to England, the first thing he did was interact with the ground, treating it as an object that would recognize his divine rights. His attitude towards England is that it is the mineral rather than the country composed of people that need to be governed.

In Act III, Scene 4, when the Gardener, tending the garden, says to the servants, “Cut off the heads of too fast growing sprays, / That look too lofty in our commonwealth: / All must be even in our government." (Shakespeare Act 3, Scene 4) Richard doesn’t understand the nation as something requiring constant care. The gardener here seems to be offering a governance model completely different from Richard’s. In his language, the nation is not a static piece of land, nor a completed sacred object. Order is not naturally self-sustaining. For Richard, governing the country is about possessing the nation and inheriting an object. Richard always treats his land as a sacred thing, capable of responding to him. His imagination of the country is a fixed and legal existence. The imagery in Richard’s political imagination is mostly stable, for example, the crown or the balm, making the hierarchy appear as a complete fact, already attached to his body. He’s more like saying that as long as I remain king, this order itself should stand.

Hierarchy, to Richard, is always stable, which is the main reason for him to treat people and make inappropriate decisions, leading to his inevitable end. It is a fixed mindset that is already implanted inside his mind, in the Chain of Being, all order and hierarchy of the universe is made up by God, and he, as the one chosen by God, is capable of doing anything. Everyone in the play flattering him also strengthens that idea in his mind. Thus, he already connected himself with the divine king. He is also a tragic figure because by the time he realizes these things, the situation is already beyond repair. Even in his final moments, until his death, he is still contemplating being a king, like an inescapable prison in his head.