Henry V

of mockery? That answer is dependent on whom you ask. Like King Henry V, I believe that he fits the definition of a good Christian king. King Henry V, for he led his people to the best of his abilities. He trusted in God to lead his men in the battle of Agincourt and because of his faith, he won. When faced with challenges, he went to God for answers, as the Bible said one should. How could one say he was not a good king? King Henry V led his people to the best of his abilities; does this mean…

share the same status or position in life, yet they develop differently. Shakespeare uses foils in many of his plays to depict the theme, however, Henry V is one of the obvious plays that this is true of. Shakespeare communicates that humility is integral to a righteous leader through the use of the Dauphin as a foil to Henry in Henry V. The way that Henry and the prince of France interact with the men beneath them shows the quality of their leadership skills. The effect of Henry’s humility on…

legitimacy and power. More specifically, violence and battles solidifies a King’s leadership qualities and his right to sit on the throne. In Henry V Act IV, Shakespeare gives a voice to Michael Williams, a common soldier that is skeptical about the phenomenon of war and its ties to the devastation common people experience as a result. By hiding his identity, Henry V is able to have an unfiltered dialogue with Williams regarding warfare and the monarchy. In this short essay I will analyze the…

The themes of both justice and injustice permeate the entirety of both Henry V and Heroes. From the opening chapter of Heroes with its horrific description of the war injuries sustained by Francis Cassavant, right through to the final chapter where he leaves to live a new life, justice plays a critical part in every action. Likewise, each scene in Henry V is constructed to illustrate how the factor of justice and what is morally right, impacts the decisions made. Intentionally, the writers…

book review I read the book Shakespeare And The Problem Of Meaning written by Norman Rabkin. This book was published in 1981 by the University of Chicago Press. In this book Rabkin looks at several Shakespeare plays including The Merchant of Venice, Henry V, and The Tempest as well as many others. Rabkin uses these to support his argument that the plays do mean something more than can be conveyed by description alone. He shows that there are many complex paradoxical elements present in…

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…

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…

Henry V has the ability to communicate with people from all walks of life. Henry gives this Saint Crispin's Day speech to his men just before a battle in which they are terribly outnumbered. In this speech, Henry V demonstrates this ability to prepare all of his men to feel valued and equal. In this essay, I will examine three examples that show Henry V speaking to his men and demonstrating that they are all in the battle together. In the beginning, one of the examples in the Saints Crispin’s…

toes, stand high, because they should be proud of himself. Henry adds that every peasant who fights with him will become his brother, and all the Englishmen that chose to stay at home and not fight will have regret for the rest of their life that they were not there to witness and share in the honour of winning. The St Crispian’s speech is obviously very inspirational. His men are extremely outnumbered so to encourage them to fight, Henry obviously put out a very charismatic speech. He is…

interpretation of his words. In The Hollow Crown’s version of Henry V Tom Hiddleston breathes life into the long dead King Henry V. Juxtaposition is brilliantly used by director Thea Sharrock to contrast the French to the English, as well as emphasize the passion and turmoil that Henry V experiences. The pinnacle of the polarization between the King and the French is witnessed when comparing French Ambassador Montjoy’s first visit to King Henry V to his last visit, an effect created not only…