Module B Flashcards
The poetic verse is dramatized through the personification of the English soil as a mother, and violent imagery of her lips covered by her children’s blood.
In the opening A1S1, King Henry dramatically proclaims in longwinded poetic verse to the court in response to the recent rebellions, “No more the thirsty entrance of this soil//Shall daub her lips with her own children’s blood…”
- Personification of the English soil
Shakespeare highlights the order and disorder within the kingdom, contrasting scenes filled with political tension with the rowdy comedy in the tavern.
Throughout the play, Shakespeare creates a dramatic structure by contrasting scenes between King Henry’s court, the rebel’s meetings and the rowdy and cacophonous tavern.
Juxtaposition of order and disorder establish a stark difference between appearance and reality.
King henry calls for the resolution of “Those opposed eyes//Which, like the meteors of a troubled heaven,”
- Juxtaposition of orderly and disorderly images, Heaven against the meteors, which were believed to a bad omen.
- Introduction of celestial motif which Shakespeare uses to refer to royalty
Shakespeare uses the heavenly and celestial imagery to highlight King Henry’s illegitimate position as King. He is illusory leader.
Use of language that insinuates costuming
“And then I stole all courtesy from heaven,//And dressed myself in such humility//That I did pluck allegiance from men’s heart.”
- Metaphor of stealing from heaven, a great sin which implies the disorder or impending doom
Hal’s verse during the monologue is in stark contrast of Hal’s initial behaviour in the tavern where he crudely jests with Falstaff in prose. By characterising Hal to adroitly shift his image by being able to adapt to both dialects despite the rigid feudal class system, Shakespeare begins to introduce the importance and power of maintaining one’s image in politics. The disparity between Hotspur and Hal is further emphasised by the fact Hotspur solely speaks in prose.
In the introduction of Hal in A1S2 the tavern, Hal crudely jests with Falstaff in prose that Falstaff should have no reason to know the time unless “sundials were whorehouse signs and the sun itself were a hot woman in a flame-coloured dress.”
- Spoken in prose, crudely jesting with Falstaff
In his soliloquy, Hal shifts from prose to verse, demonstrating his ability to adapt to present different appearances which Shakespeare highlights throughout the play. Addressing the audience, Hal explains, “Yet herein I will imitate the sun//Who doth permit the base contagious clouds//To smother up his beauty from the world,”
- Ironically, he now respectfully alludes to the sun
- Celestial motif is also mentioned by Hal, the sun is associated with royalty
- Flourishes his monologue with figurative language, likening himself to the sun and metaphorically depicting the taverners as “contagious clouds” that “smother” his beauty.
Hal’s desired and predicted effect of his transformation through the manipulation of his image highlight his Machiavellian ideals. This is right after he agrees to go on the robbery in order to gull Falstaff and expose him for the coward he is.
Hal describes his comeback, “like bright metal on a sullen ground,//My reformation, glittering o’er my fault”.
- The contrasting imagery of bright metal against the ground demonstrates that his redemption serves exclusively to impress his people.
Hotspur acknowledges the role of “smiles” in politics however, he looks down on this Machiavellian approach and in contrast, believes that honour a defining factor for good politicians.
A1S3, Hal describes King Henry with disdain as a “vile politician… king of smiles”
In addition to understanding the importance of preserve a good image and reputation for gaining political power, Hal also realises to that part of maintaining political power requires acting and behaving as a royal which he has not been doing.
A2S3 is a turning point in Hal’s character development to becoming an eligible successor to Henry. During the play extempore, Falstaff parodies the role of the king, comically continuing to talk in prose. Falstaff alludes to the king of a literary world, diminishing the role to be played “in King Cambyses’ vein”.
Hal angrily responds, “Dost thou speak like a king? Do thou stand for me, and I’ll play my father.” Playing the king, Hal reprimands Falstaff who is playing Hal, “Thou art violently carried away from grace.” He reflects, “There is an evil that haunts thee in the likeness of an old fat man.”
Celestial imagery of the comet is continually used by Shakespeare to ironically demonstrate how power was achieved through political manoeuvres which made King Henry seem celestial rather than genuine god-ordained mandates.
During Hal and King Henry’s meeting in A3S2, King Henry tells Henry that “Opinion, that did help me to the crown”, acknowledging that he gained illegitimate power through the careful construction of his image. He limited his appearances so that “like a comet” he was wondered at, “My presence, like a robe pontifical.”
- Celestial imagery of the comet
This “thou bearest thee like a king” also reinforces the idea that the king can obtain power through manipulation of their image, however, in order to remain in power, they must continue to act with nobility.
In A5S3, during Douglas’ quest to kill the king, he kills many soldiers that “grow like Hydra’s heads” all “marching in his [the king’s] coats”. He demands for the king the “counterfeit’st the person of a king” however, when he meets the real king, despite his doubts, Douglas perceives that the king “bearest thee like a king.”
- The allusion to Greek mythology, the description of Hydra’s heads to describe the ever-increasing number of soldier’s in the king’s coats.
- He describes the real king as the true counterfeit, pretending to be the king. This use of diction also corresponds to the motif of monetary terms.
Parallels between Hotspur and Hal
In the opening, A1S1, King Henry laments that whilst “riot and disorder stain the brow” of Prince Hal, Hotspur is “the theme of honour’s tongue”
- Uses dramatic figurative language to hyperbolically establish the parallels between Hal and Hotspur
Hal’s reformation (use of monetary terms)
In A1S2 during his monologue, Hal proclaims “So when this loose behaviour I throw off,//And pay the debt I never promised”
- Establishes a theme of redemption that Shakespeare conflates with monetary terms, Hal will pay off the “debt”
Hotspur urges the rebels to join him…
In A1S3 when Hotspur “Revenge… of this proud king… to answer all the debt he owes to you, Even with the bloody payment of your deaths”
- Hotspur also highlights the transactional nature of honour, by urging the rebels to restore their honour for betraying the previous king by joining him
Hotspur demonstrates the great lengths and distances that he would go to achieve honour, even from the moon. His perspective is that leadership is an ideal possessed by a hero who has collected honour.
A1S3, Hotspur desires “to pluck bright honour from the pale faced moon” so that the person who “redeem her thence might wear… all her dignities”.
- Personifies honour as something material and tangible that he must have over everyone else.
How King Henry ascended to the throne.
A3S2, King Henry details his ascension to the throne, telling Hal, “[I] dressed myself in such humility//That I did pluck allegiance from men’s heart.”
- By directly paralleling the action of plucking allegiance rather than honour from men’s heart, Shakespeare emphasises the different political ideals of the two characters.
