Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Character eval

Inspired by Cortnie, I thought I'd attempt a character evaluation of Henry V, as he seems to be the most important character. Shakespeare doesn't create 2D characters, so I thought it'd be interesting to give a sketch of my impressions of him. Here's the textual evidence:

  •  Act I, Scene II: The king's speech on tennis balls, "When we have march'd our rackets to these balls, / We will, in France, by God's grace, play a set / Shall strike his father's crown into the hazard." Henry shows that he has grown up, and he can talk with all the power and force of a real king.
  • Act III, Scene VI: the king needs to execute his friend Bardolph for stealing from a church. "We would have all such offenders so cut off... / for when lenity and cruelty play for a kingdom, the / Gentler gamester is the soonest winner." Here's where the ambiguity in Henry's character shows through. He shows his kingly ability to stick to the rules, regardless of personal matters, but is he a robot to not be moved by his friend's death? That's one reason why I like the 1989 version of Henry V.
  • Act III, Scene III: speech at Harfleur, in which he threatens the town with rape on multiple instances. I think it's really interesting that the two sides of Henry's character grow further apart here. He gives a rousing and heroic speech to his men, encouraging them to fight for a good cause: "Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; / Or close the wall up with our English dead." But then he immediately afterwards gives a terribly threatening speech to the town's governor. Almost comically, the governor comes out to say, 'Well, we can't defend ourselves, so dispose of us as you will.' Is Henry's cause really just? Surely he was answered in the affirmative in Act I when he asked, "May I with right and conscience make this claim?"
  • But if you had doubts about Henry's audacity and strength of heart before, he shows us further his ability to keep trudging on, when he tells Montjoy that though his troops are "much enfeebled," and they do not seek a battle, they will still face it if needs be. Act III, Scene VI.
  • The issue of the king's just causes, and Henry's role as king is developed further when the king disguises himself to hear the men's opinions on the war. Under disguise, Henry suggests that the king's "cause being / just and his quarrel honourable" when he is rebutted by a common soldier who claims, "That's more than we know... or more than we should seek after." The idea that the entire decision of every man's death in this war seems to weigh heavy upon Henry's head in this moment, as he reacts with anger, insisting that the king cannot answer for every one of his subjects, for "if the cause be not good, the king himself hath / a heavy reckoning to make."Act IV, Scene I.
  • Henry laments his lot in life as king when he gives his speech saying, "Upon the king! Let us our lives, our souls, / Our debts, our careful wives, / Our children and our sins lay on the king!" He laments such responsibility with the only reward as ceremony. Yet earlier he assured the soldier that the king would not rather be anywhere but on that battlefield that night. How does Henry resolve this dilemma? He never gets the opportunity to make a reckoning with it, because his problems are solved with victory. But if he had faced defeat, how would he have dealt with the weight of responsibility placed on him by a common soldier? This is probably why, after the battle at Agincourt, Henry bestows the soldier, Williams, with a money reward, most likely out of relief not just from the tension of the battle, but from the risk of having to face a problem he may have found unsolveable.

Henry is said to have been 'immortalized' by Shakespeare, like in this video. I wonder how much of Henry's personality is fabricated by Shakespeare, and how much of it was real?

1 comment:

  1. "Act III, Scene VI: the king needs to execute his friend Bardolph for stealing from a church. "We would have all such offenders so cut off... / for when lenity and cruelty play for a kingdom, the / Gentler gamester is the soonest winner." Here's where the ambiguity in Henry's character shows through. He shows his kingly ability to stick to the rules, regardless of personal matters, but is he a robot to not be moved by his friend's death? That's one reason why I like the 1989 version of Henry V."

    -- the ironic and interesting thing about this part to me is he's talking about being gentle to the French people but he ruthlessly allows his English friend to be hung. It's so ... mind-boggling to me.

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