In Henry IV Part One, first impressions are never correct. By the end of the play, we have been forced to re-assess our feelings about the main characters. Explain why you agree or disagree with this statement.

By Act III, Sc. III Henry states that he needs his own son, Hal, to take over the throne,

A hundred thousand rebels die in this:

Thou shalt have change and sovereign trust herein.

He has forgiven Hal for all his immature behaviour with Falstaff and wants him to be the heir to the throne when he dies. I think this is very touching as he finally realises that Hal can be responsible enough to take over the throne, after he changes into a more mature person-someone able to deal with kingly responsibilities.

Hal is a very rebellious and immature in the beginning of the play; led astray from royalty by Falstaff. Hal would have been new to the idea of being an heir as Henry wasn't the meant to be the next heir after Richard, but he usurped the crown-making Hal the heir to the throne. Hal has a very close relationship with his friend Falstaff-almost like a father/son bond between them, but Falstaff is a bad influence upon Hal; he steals, drinks and is untrustworthy. Hal admires Falstaff and has more respect for him than for his own father. This is shown in Act II, Sc. IV. Hal and Falstaff continue to mock the king by impersonating him:

Thou art violently carried away from grace: there is

A devil haunts the in the likeness of an old fat man

Each of them impersonates the king and Hal- mocking him for being so strict and self-righteous. This adds humour to a very serious play about war and you get to see how other characters view the king as a person. I believe they find him too serious and quite uptight about a lot of issues-including that he thinks his son is irresponsible. I like how Shakespeare includes humour to lighten the seriousness of the play-it keeps the audience interested so that the length of the play is not so much to digest. In Act V, Sc. IV Hal kills Hotspur in a bloody battle and exits from the stage. Falstaff enters the battle and tells Hal that he has killed Hotspur. Hal lets Falstaff take the credit for killing Hotspur, I think this is because Hal wants the court and King to see that Falstaff can be mature and responsible. The King then believes Falstaff can be a fighter and useful to the country-so he then forgives Falstaff for his ways. He also forgives Hal and I think Hal is very grateful to be accepted again by his father.

My first impressions of Falstaff are that he is a very witty, self-interested man. He is the character created to bring comedy to the play when it is so strongly themed around war. He likes to have fun by twisting people's words and is a thieving, drunken bad influence upon Hal. He has a very close relationship with Hal even though he has such a bad effect on him. The King despises Falstaff because he is corrupting the young, immature mind of the heir to the throne, making Hal an unworthy choice to be next King. The first time he appears on stage he is with prince Hal talking about a robbery at nearby Gadshill, which he manages to persuade Hal to participate in.

For we that take purses go by the

Moon and the seven stars, and not by Phoebus

From this we can see why the King has a dislike for Falstaff befriending Hal. Your first impressions of Falstaff are true of him; he is a gluttonous, drunken, dishonest man and his character does little to change during the course of the play. At the end of the play he even allows himself to buy his trust from the King by falsely admitting he killed Hotspur. The audience allows themselves to overlook his shameful qualities because of the humour he adds to the play. By the end of the play it seems as though Falstaff has changed for the better (from the King's point of view) as he 'killed' Hotspur, but to the audience he is still the same man as in the beginning of the play as they have the ability to see everything that happens.

I agree with the statement that we have been forced to re-assess our feelings about the main characters at the end of the play. The characters have changed gradually over the course of the play; the characters first impressions almost forgotten by the end of the play. The characters have become stronger and have formed a unique bond by the end: the King forgiving Falstaff and Hal, Hal becoming closer to his father and Falstaff turning into a more respectable friend to the prince. This makes the audience happier with the outcome of the play and displays some good morals.