The Struggle In Rabkin's Henry V

Rabkin starts his second chapter by summarizing that Shakespeare’s art includes a world whose principles are never in doubt, but it is never as simple as one expects. Henry V is another one of Shakespeare’s controversial plays. There have been many different ways of looking at the controversy, but Rabkin argues that they are all wrong. Rabkin states that “Shakespeare created a work whose ultimate power is precisely the fact that it points in two opposite directions” and ultimately, Shakespeare is pushing us to choose one of the two sides of interpretation (34). Rabkin compares this idea to the known illusion of the picture that, on one side, shows a duck, and when turned 90 degrees, shows a rabbit. Rabkin believes that we can look at both views …show more content…
The ambiguities found cannot be defined as what Shakespeare’s plays are “about”; they are merely tools that the poet uses. In Henry V, Shakespeare leads his audience to a state of crisis. This altercation between the two possible interpretations of Henry V suggests a “spiritual struggle in Shakespeare that he would spend the rest of his career working through” (Rabkin 62). This struggle in interpretations is found in the problem plays and tragedies. Shakespeare shares this conflict, and he ultimately brings us down into it as we reflect on the plays and performances that lean one way or the other. Rabkin states that Henry V is important because it “shows us something about ourselves: the simultaneity of our deepest hopes and fears about the world of political action” (Rabkin 62). Shakespeare conveys the private selves that we are born in, and the public selves that we must become. Henry V battles with the hope that our problems can be solved by society, and the realization that society has never done so. Within this play, Henry V, ambiguity is the heart of the matter; it is the most important element we must confront in becoming fully aware of the world we live