Why Does King Henry's Use Of Speech

Superior Essays
In the historical play Henry V, by William Shakespeare, we are introduced to the story of a young and mysterious King Henry V of England, and his quest to conquer France under the ruler ship of Charles VI of France. According to (“Henry V (play)”), it details Henry’s life leading up to and following the Battle of Agincourt in the year 1415. From the very beginning, the Chorus portrays Henry as a glorious King who is about to engage in an epic and glorifying battle with the French. However, the Chorus then reveals that the play will not be as heroic and Godly as initially envisioned. This is because there is a shortage in the resources necessary to depict this great spectacle, and it is instead the audience’s responsibility to both create and …show more content…
This is clearly evident based on Henry’s retaliation to the Dauphin’s childish “mock”, which then provoked Henry to threaten to unleash savage death and destruction on the entire country of France, while the Dauphin still views Henry as a child who is incapable of leading a country. For this reason, Henry’s incessant use of the word “mock” exposes the tactical nature of Henry, as well as his cleverness given how effectively he is able to transform “mock” into a weapon of speech. The form of King Henry’s speech also suggests both his intelligent and wrathful nature. In particular, his use of blank verse form by including unrhymed lines and two dashes further signifies his strategicness, as he is sending the Ambassadors away. When considering the importance of Henry’s use of the dash, you must recall that Henry has been continuously rambling on about the damage and vengeance he will inflict upon France. This also indicates how intensely Henry has been provoked by the Dauphin to the point where he has commanded to invade and unleash destruction on France during this tennis match of a war. Immediately after, Henry then portrays his multifaceted personality by switching from a wrathful to reverent tone as he addresses the Ambassadors before exiting by saluting, “When thousands weep more than

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Shakespeare’s seminal classic Henry V is the culmination of the Henriad tetralogy, and is an allusion to the aphorism that “the pen is mightier than the sword,” for despite being renowned as a warrior king in the Bard’s tale, King Henry fought his battles with the mettle of his rhetoric rather than the metal of his blade. This can be seen in the way in which he utilises orotund oratory to intimidate the citizens of Harfleur into surrendering, but perhaps his most monumental use of magniloquence was when wooing the heart of Katherine. Love is a battlefield unto itself, and the way that Henry V wickedly twisted his words was analogous to the skill that the English soldiers displayed off-stage, on the battlefields of Agincourt. There are a number…

    • 753 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the novel Tunes for Bears to Dance to Mr. Levine presents Henry a small figure. The small figure resembles Henry quite a lot. Mr. Levine gives Henry this figure, so that Henry will remember Mr. Levine once Henry moves back to his old town. This figure gives the reader an insight of what Henry looks like, because Henry describes the figure. He said this figure is three inches tall, sturdy, strong, smiling and he also says he’ll keep this figure forever.…

    • 428 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Overall, however, director Thea Sharrock has made some key errors with her version of the play. Sharrock doesn’t seem to have quite decided what she wants her Henry V to say or who she wants her King Henry to be. The film starts on promising notes. Sharrock opens with Henry V’s funeral (which The Chorus describes in the closing lines of the play) suggesting he is the perfect king. She reinforces this idea by giving us a King Henry who goes to war out of a sense of obligation to his own and his country’s honor.…

    • 516 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Such an attempt to veil political motivations can be seen in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s (RSC) interpretation of Act 2, Scene 4, directed by Gregory Doran. Doran’s representation of this scene serves to present a dramatic, visual performance, but also to demonstrate his shared perspective of Shakespeare’s political views. The characterisation of Falstaff as a static character is a foil to King Henry, where the juxtaposition is apparent between the honourable and utilitarian yet politically ambiguous figures, versus the vulgar yet honest ‘human’. Moreover, Falstaff satirises King Henry IV’s legitimacy and how he presents himself, as he says, “Give me a cup of sack to make my eyes look red, that it may be thought I have wept, for I must speak in passion...”, the motif of ‘sack’ being associated with irresponsibility and frivolity as a result of Falstaff’s characterisation. Furthermore, Falstaff continues the meta-play, satirising the King’s way of speech through his role-playing: “I do not speak to thee in drink, but in tears; not in pleasure, but in passion; not in words only, but in woes also”.…

    • 1513 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Shakespeare personifies King Henry’s need to maintain control of the situation through rhetorical questions in “Shall our coffers/ then be emptied to redeem a traitor home?/ Shall we by treason an indent with fears/” This reveals to the audience that because of King Henry 's paranoia he needs to ask constant questions to assure himself that his followers are still loyal to him furthermore the rhetorical questions in “Shall our coffers/ then be emptied to redeem a traitor home?” serves the purpose of manipulating blunt into thinking that Mortimer is a traitorous coward. Shakespeare 's use of intimidating tone, religious allusion and rhetorical questions shows how paranoia leads individuals to manipulate politician situations in order to maintain control over power and leadership…

    • 1359 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    What ended up mattering most was Catherine. The goal of this paper is to elucidate these changes within Henry and those with whom he had relationships with. Concerning the war, Henry’s casual, careless attitude deteriorated throughout. In Book I, it’s apparent that he doesn’t care much about the war.…

    • 1068 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Simply put, Henry wants to wreak havoc on France. To be a king means to assert your power everywhere, and Henry is doing just that. By laying claim to two countries, he is creating a mythical persona for himself. The persona is another way of Henry trying to play the role of king, as the mythical persona has a majesty attached to it that he believes is necessary to the ethos of a king.…

    • 74 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Henry 4 Protagonist

    • 782 Words
    • 4 Pages

    King Henry the Fourth thinks lowly of the Prince of Wales. In fact, Henry goes so far as to say that he wouldn’t be surprised if he joined Percy to fight against him (3.2.124-8). However, Hal denies the possibility of that ever happening (3.2.129-31). As the play goes on the reader is able to quickly realize the onerous relationship between Prince Hal and Henry IV.…

    • 782 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the play “Richard the Third”, Richard, the Duke of Gloucester is clearly identified as malicious as he rises to power to king through corruption. One of the members of the Lancaster royal family, Richmond, on the other hand fights for justice in England. Richard and Richmond’s speeches addressed to their respective troops before the battle illustrates distinctive qualities of their personality. Through their diction, the characters true colors as well as their motives are revealed as. Considering the dreams that each of the characters had earlier, Richard’s speech is influenced from fear while Richmond’s is hopeful.…

    • 1271 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    King Henry V’s rhetoric often relies on contrasting the noble class and class of commoners, which are seen, by Shakespeare, to not be as polarized as some would believe, because both contain universally human elements. Although King Henry’s speech to the traitors creates the clearest discussion of the upper and lower socio-political classes, the context for the speech is fundamental to properly understanding and analyzing it, as well as giving further evidence on its own. Specifically, before switching to scene two, the play focuses on a group of commoners. In the final four lines of the scene, Nym calls Henry, “a good king,” and Pistol states: “Let us condole the knight, for, lampkins, we will live” (2.1.125-28).…

    • 611 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Henry V

    • 1041 Words
    • 5 Pages

    On one side, King Henry is attempting to find out if he has a legitimate claim to the thrown and on the other side there is the French expressing conflicting emotions in regards to the maturity and intimidation of King Henry and whether or not he should be taken seriously as a threat. It is a passionate story of love and war and is relatively intense. The intensity of the story is often broken up by humorous exchanges between some of the characters, Shakespeare does this in order to lighten the mood and make sure that the play doesn't become too depressing so that his audience becomes sad and uninterested in what the play has to offer. Among the most humorous scenes was when Henry is dressed up as a common soldier and is talking to his men about himself while they are unaware of his true identity and he meets one man who has some unflattering things to say about the king and Henry defends the king's honor and states that, should they both survive the battle, they will meet up and settle their differences like men. Then, after the battle, he gives the mans glove to somebody and says that it belongs to a Frenchman so if anyone recognizes it they must be a traitor; so when the man that Henry got into the altercation with recognizes his glove he goes after it and then Henry explains everything and promotes the man and they all laugh it…

    • 1041 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Within the final act of the play, Shakespeare highlights Henry’s calculating nature despite his victory at the Battle of Agincourt and his subsequent success in winning Katharine’s hand in marriage via the Treaty of Troyes as a result. However, despite Henry’s victory, he still attempts to woo Katharine for her hand in marriage. Moreover, this highlights the considerable power balance between the two, as regardless of Katharine’s broken English, Henry mocks Katharine by repeatedly using the lexis ‘like’ even when she has explained her understanding of the word is minimal. The behaviour displayed by Henry can be interpreted as another layer to his callous and cruel personality, showing his cunning ability to play a game although the battle has already been won.…

    • 519 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part II, King Henry shifts the strategy of his speech to sleep as his state of mind degrades into frustration and jealousy, noticeable in the diction, imagery, tone, and structure of the soliloquy. From the first line and a half, the King’s jealous and selfish attitude towards his “poorest subjects” becomes apparent, and as the passage progresses these feelings become increasingly apparent (l. 1). However, at this point, Henry quickly adopts a demeanor of flattery towards sleep, whom he addresses in apostrophe. He hopes by referring to sleep as “Nature’s soft nurse” or “O gentle sleep” he might escape his state of insomnia (ll. 2, 3). Henry assumes the blame for the situation as he apologizes for somehow having frightened sleep away (l. 3).…

    • 744 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The revolving view of people and politics is manipulated such that it becomes the apparent truth. This is evident within the play, King Henry Part 1, written by William Shakespeare due to the positioning of the audience’s view or perspective on matters such that they are able to unveil the true meaning. In King Henry Part 1, an understanding can be formed with each character as they all have their own politics, a standpoint or decision that they stick by which is influenced by their own values, ideologies and virtues. Within the play, Hal and King Henry are prominent examples in which their actions are manipulated by the playwright thus reestablishing the audience’s preconceived ideas and views on them. This manipulation of the surrounding…

    • 1099 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    When Shakespeare wrote Henry IV, Part II, England faced issues of kingship, constitution, and rebellion. Shakespeare’s contemporaries, Elizabethans in the 1590s, undoubtedly had anxieties about the aging Queen Elizabeth I’s lack of an apparent heir, much like the anxieties surrounding Hal’s imminent succession to the throne. At the same time, Shakespeare presents to his audience a history play, dramatizes information, introduces fictional characters, and “mingling kings and clowns” on stage, and essentially tells a story about people growing into their destinies determined by God, the background force of the history plays. The themes, character arcs, and the contemporary anxieties finds best representation in Henry IV’s monologue in 4.5.95-140.…

    • 1492 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays