Shakespeare’s Presentation of Henry V as a Hero Essay

Introduction

The history play Henry V depicts the life and destiny of one of the English kings and draws his historical portraits. If Shakespeare presented this play to an Elizabeth theater he would centers on the ambivalent presentation of Henry’s character, an aspect of the play that has invited the most critical controversy. The main principles of the Elizabeth theater were conservatory and religious nature typical for the social life of this epoch. The audience consisted of both low class and upper class citizens. The audience expectations of the play would be a comedy. Henry V would not be read either as a full endorsement of a heroic monarch triumphing in a splendid military campaign or as a sustained ironic critique of the King and his war.

Main text

In general, the term ‘hero’ can be defined as a man who possesses immense strength and wisdom to compete in the battle field and fight with his enemies protecting the native land. In the play, Henry does not act as a hero when he tried to maintain justice as a violent cause against thieves; he does not accept responsibility for the war in France (Champion 34). Also, he uses any method to reach his goals and fulfill his strategic aims.

As the war conflict develops (Acts III and IV), alternating scenes are arranged so that the French come across as arrogant dilettantes, overconfident of success, while the English are humble and serious about their endeavour. In scene ix the Archbishop of Bruges delivers a “tun of tennis balls” from the Dauphin, explaining to Henry that “My lord, hearing of your wildness before your father’s death, sent you this” (144-45).

The King does not forget the insult. At Agincourt he tells the herald that he hoped the Dauphin would be there to complete the tennis match (“I have brought tennis balls for him” [xii. 361]), and in the play’s final scene the silent Dauphin is made to kiss Henry’s sword (Champion 29). In the first act of Henry V Shakespeare follows this source rather than Holinshed, to connect the tense moment of Henry’s receiving the present with his decision to invade France (Taylor 92).

In Act III Shakespeare changes Holinshed’s account of the siege of Harfleur. Holinshed reports that the town was sacked: “The soldiers were ransomed, and the town sacked, to the great gain of the Englishmen.” In Henry V the King’s threat to sack Harfleur is never carried out. Instead the brutality of such a sacking is contained within Henry’s imagined projection of it, and after the surrender of the town the King is careful to tell Exeter, “Use mercy to them all” (III. iii. 54). part from the personal anguish he expresses over Scroop’s betrayal (II. ii) and in his two soliloquies (IV. i), his motives and underlying emotions remain hidden from the audience.

The Chorus, in a loftier image that enhances Henry’s status as a conquering hero, refers to “famine, sword, and fire” crouching at Henry’s heels like hounds on a leash (Prologue, 6-8), while Henry envisages his soldiers as “greyhounds in the slips” (III. i. 31). This helps make sense of Henry’s sudden and often perplexing rushes of piety after he has behaved aggressively, as in the tennis balls sequence (I. ii. 289-90), in the traitors scene (II. ii. 185-86), and after the victory at Agincourt (IV. viii. 108-10) (Walter 33).

It would not be difficult to Shakespeare to present Henry V as a true hero because his language reveals his heroic nature and actions. “Thanks, good my countryman: “God keep me so!”–which are more likely prose than half lines of blank verse. Unmemorable as these words are on the page, this encounter, a drop in tension after the battle, becomes an emotional high point in Branagh Henry V (Taylor 97). These are moments when the usually restrained Henry, now conversing in an informal manner about being an honest Welshman, drops his mask and breaks into tears of relief.

Henry reveals a strong character in his conversation with the soldiers. His style is logical when he rebuts Williams’ charge that “the King himself hath a heavy reckoning to make” (Champion 49). The parallelism, emphasizing the analogies between the “king… father… master” and then evoking a range of sins in the soldiers through the “some… some… some” (Champion 77) clauses, drives home the point that Henry needs to make: that the king is not responsible for the souls of his subjects (Walter 87): He motivates and inspire his soldiers to be brave and heroic. Shakespeare uses simile and metaphors to underline heroic nature of the King and his actions. Imagery and humor helps him to hide unpleasant moments form Henry’s biography and presents his as a true hero (Champion 44).

Thus, Henry is not a hero to everybody in the play including the French and Catherine. The women of Henry V are clearly circumscribed within a male-dominated society. But despite the play’s fairly relentless focus on Henry and his war, four female characters are given speaking parts: the Hostess, who appears in two scenes; Princess Catherine and her attendant Alice, also in two scenes; and Queen Isabella, who appears in the final scene only (Champion 82).

Act IV, centering on Agincourt, not surprisingly contains no appearances by women; yet III. iv is given over exclusively to two French women, who converse in their own language without any male intervention (Taylor 55). If at all, the women in the play offer a challenge to the values of Henry and his male associates (GUrr 72). There is a difference between the English and French use: French is the language of Catherine and her surrounding, thus English is a language of the majority. Thus, French language is more gentle and feminine while the use of English is more harsh and strong to underline a conflict between two countries and two nations (Walter 43).

Conclusion

In sum, Henry V would be presented by Shakespeare as a heroic play aimed to attract attention of the audience to the character and importance of this ruler to the English history and society. Throughout the performance tradition of the play, one finds again and again a variety of means of whitewashing the war and the character of the king.

Works Cited

1. Champion, L. S. Perspective in Shakespeare’s English Histories. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1980.
2. Gurr, A. (ed.), Henry V. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.
3. Shakespeare, W. Henry V. 2000. Web.
4. Taylor, G. (ed.), Henry V. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982.
5. Walter, J. H. (ed.), Henry V, The Arden Shakespeare. London: Methuen, 1954.