W. Shakesphere’s politic’s as illustrated in history dramas Henry IV

Sh’s works as well known are devided into three major groups: Histories, Comedies and tragedies. The differences between comedies and tragedies include important structural differences in the plot. In case with History plays the action and the major theme of the play are predominantly political. Some history plays are closer to tragedies (Richard III, Richard II) and some are closer to comedies. Tragedies like Macbeth or King Lear are much more than politics, they are more complex, they involve the exploration of the sole of the main character. Henry IV, Part 1, more commonly referred to as 1 Henry IV, is one of Shakespeare’s history plays. It forms the second part of a tetralogy, or four-part series, that deals with the historical rise of the English royal House of Lancaster. (The tetralogy proceeds in the following order: Richard II, 1 Henry IV, 2 Henry IV—that is, Henry IV, Part 2—and Henry V.) Henry IV takes place nearly two centuries before Shakespeare’s own time. In general, it follows real events and uses historical figures, although Shakespeare significantly alters or invents history where it suits him. For instance, the historical Hotspur was not the same age as Prince Harry. .The play mixes history and comedy innovatively, moving from lofty scenes involving kings and battles to base scenes involving ruffians drinking and engaging in robberies. To understand the conflict of the play we should know what preceded the events. Richard II, the legitimate king, is a bad ruler. He is overthrown by Bolingbroke, who, with a support of some powerful nobels takes the throne. He is Henry IV himself. What’s crucial about this action is that Bolingbroke has violated the traditional form of political authority. Once he had made military power the basis of his political order, how can he make his citizens acknowledge his power and subdue to it. Aтв what happens to a country where there are competing military powers. Henry, once having violated the traditional loyalty owned to king cannot himself be secure from the similar action. He can not trust people around, once he has betrayed his King. His worst fears actually come true. His former allies rebel against him. The play is naturally concerned with the idea of rulership. It questions what makes a ruler legitimate, which qualities are desirable in a ruler. While the criteria that make a ruler legitimate differ—legitimate rule may be attributed to the will of the people or to the will of God—on some level the crack in Henry’s power results from his own fear that his rule is illegitimate. The qualities that are desirable in a ruler are explored through the contrast inherent in the play’s major characters. Each man offers a very different style of rulership. In the end, Shakespeare seems to endorse Harry’s ability to think his way through a situation and to manipulate others without straying too far from the dictates of conscience. In any event, Harry emerges as Shakespeare’s most impressive English king two plays later, in Henry V. Though it is one of the principal themes of the play, the concept of honor is never given a consistent definition in 1 Henry IV. In fact, the very multiplicity of views on honor that Shakespeare explores suggests that, in the end, honor is merely a lofty reflection of an individual’s personality and conscience. For the complex Prince Harry, honor seems to be associated with noble behavior, but for long stretches of time Harry is willing to sacrifice the appearance of honor for the sake of his own goals, confident that he can regain his honor at will. Harry’s conception of honor is so all-inclusive that he believes that, by killing Hotspur, Hotspur’s honor becomes his own. For the amoral rogue Falstaff, the whole idea of honor is nothing but hot air and wasted effort that does no one any good. All the major characters in the play are concerned with honor, but their opinions about the subject illuminate more about them than they do about the concept of honor. Prince Harry Harry is nevertheless a complicated character and one whose real nature is very difficult to pin down. As the play opens, Harry has been idling away his time with Falstaff and earning the displeasure of both his father and England as a whole. He then surprises everyone by declaring that his dissolute lifestyle is all an act: he is simply trying to lower the expectations that surround him so that, when he must, he can emerge as his true, heroic self, shock the whole country, and win the people’s love and his father’s admiration. Harry

is clearly intelligent and already capable of the psychological machinations required of kings.

But the heavy measure of deceit involved in his plan seems to call his honor into question, and his treatment of Falstaff further sullies his name: though there seems to be real affection between the prince and the roguish knight, Harry is quite capable of tormenting and humiliating his friend (and, when he becomes king in 2 Henry IV, of disowning him altogether). Sir John Falstaff Old, fat, lazy, selfish, dishonest, corrupt, thieving, manipulative, boastful, and lecherous, Falstaff is, despite his many negative qualities, perhaps the most popular of all of Shakespeare’s comic characters. Though he is technically a knight, Falstaff’s lifestyle clearly renders him incompatible with the ideals of courtly chivalry that one typically associates with knighthood. For instance, Falstaff is willing to commit robbery for the money and entertainment of it. Two reasons that Falstaff retains this esteem are that he plays his scoundrel’s role with such gusto and that he never enjoys enough success to become a real villain; Largely a creature of words.A master of punning and wordplay, Falstaff provides most of the comedy in the play (just as he does in 2 Henry IV, The Merry Wives of Windsor, and Henry V). He redeems himself largely through his real affection for Prince Harry, whom, despite everything, he seems to regard as a real friend. This affection makes Harry’s decision, foreshadowed in 1 Henry IV, to abandon Falstaff when he becomes king (in 2 Henry IV) seem all the more harsh.

Date: 2016-01-05; view: 1423