The character of Henry V fulfilled the Tudor ideal of the perfect leader and king, yet for 21st century audiences, he remains an ambiguous figure. Consider the difficulties faced by a director of this play.

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Ben Marsden

KING HENRY V

The character of Henry V fulfilled the Tudor ideal of the perfect leader and king,

yet for 21st century audiences, he remains an ambiguous figure. Consider the

 

difficulties faced by a director of this play. Does Shakespeare present Henry as a

ruthless war-like figure in pursuit of victory whatever the cost, as a golden hero

whose story glorifies war, or as a just, sincere man in search of everlasting

peace?

 

Discuss with close reference to the text and any film productions you have seen.

        

There are two possible viewpoints to consider when answering this question,

 

looking from the Tudors point of view, there is one simple answer, yes King Henry V

was a heroic, patriotic and brilliant leader to his people. However the real depth of a

question such as this one is in answering the question from a modern standing,

looking back at an often naïve period of history. Over time, attitudes toward subject

such as war, heroism, and what indeed makes a person “great” have undergone drastic

changes, people have become individual in their way of thinking and personal

viewpoints have become more widely accepted. It is because of this that we can begin

to see other sides of Shakespeare’s King, and begin to contemplate such things as

motive, and personal gratification through Henrys behaviour and decisions. It is

through doing this it is possible to discover why Henry may be considered a less than

just king.

        Erasmus outlined the all qualities that all Tudor kings needed to posses.

Indeed, Henry fulfilled all these requirements, but he was clever, he new how to

manipulate the people close to him to get the results he wanted, he used his friends as

well as his allies as tools for his personal gain, and simply discarded them as he saw

fit. A statement like this may appear to be brutal and very much to the point at such an

early point, but I intend to back up all my comments with quotes and examples from

the original text.  As we see in the first two scenes especially, he portrays a perfect

king, for example after Canterbury’s speech in Scene 2 (lines 33-95) Henry asks the

simple but poignant question, “ May I with right and conscience make this claim?”

The inclusion of the words “right” and “conscience”, show us Henry considers both

these things as priorities in what he is doing, or at least he is showing Canterbury this

side of himself. Because of this we can gather, whether or not he really does have

high regard for principles and valour, is not the issue, the most prominent point is that

he wishes this to be seen in this light. Henry achieves this in the eyes of the Tudor

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people, but not in the reader’s eyes. Because of modern society it has become human

instinct to question others motives for their actions, and this is what we must do when

analysing Henrys character. However, before doing this we must discuss Henrys

actions, and thus discover his motives.

 One of the most important and outstanding point that Shakespeare wished to

 

put across was Henry’s constant blame passing. There are many examples of this in

the text, he achieves this mainly, by putting important decisions in the hands ...

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