This speech allows the audience to appreciate Henry’s ability to address his men and his facility with language. Yet Henry also manipulates the soldiers, and while his oratory makes him a great leader, it is not someone the audience would necessarily like. Henry V seems to celebrate and glorify war, almost with a lust, which can be disturbing for the audience. However, in the speech he begins by saying that ‘In peace there’s nothing so becomes a man / As modest stillness and humility,’ before he goes on to talk of war; it could be argued that his preference is for peace.
This seeming advocation of violence is again displayed in Henry’s speech delivered to the governor of Harfluer telling him to surrender or he will destroy the town. Like in Henry’s other speeches, he uses metaphor to great effect, ‘With conscience wide as hell, mowing like grass / Your fresh-fair virgins and your flowering infants’ The powerful imagery and explicit detail of the murders of innocents just shows that Henry is ruthless in his quest to conquer France. He tells the governor that he will allow his men to rape the daughters, ‘If your pure maidens fall into the hand/ Of hot and forcing violation?’ smash the heads of the fathers, and spit the infants on pikes unless there is an immediate surrender. He carefully presents himself as an unstoppable force and makes the potential victims members of families, such as daughters, fathers, mothers, and infants. This heightens the impact of the violence to such a degree that the governor yields the town without a fight. Henry can seem completely savage and his tactics may seem immoral, but it is a valuable psychological weapon that Henry uses to pressure his enemies into doing what he wants.
Yet Henry’s speeches are most awe inspiring as a motivational tool for his soldiers, these skills are best displayed in Act 4 Scene 3 where Henry addresses his men before the Battle of Agincourt, after overhearing Westmoreland saying he wishes that they had more men with them. In his speech King Henry says that they should be happy that there are so few of them present, ‘The fewer men, the greater share of honour.’ Again, Henry is manipulating the soldiers by addressing their weaknesses. Henry’s challenge is to turn his troops’ small numbers into an advantage that they have all come there to fight for honour, for justice, and for glory. He makes fighting with him at Agincourt sound like a privilege, one that will allow its participants to capture more glory than anything else could, he is using a form of propaganda by only showing them one side of the war. Henry goes on to say that he does not want to fight alongside any man who does not wish to fight. But anyone who stays to fight, in the future they will remember with pride the battle on this day: ‘This story should the good man teach his son’. Henry also brings up, once more, the motif of the bond between king and commoner. As before the Battle of Harfleur, he unites himself with his men, ‘We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.’ Henry claims that even a commoner will be made noble by fighting at his side and that the result will be lifelong honour that will elevate these fighters above their peers. He adds that everyone who fights today with the king will become his brother, and all the Englishmen who have stayed home will regret that they were not in France to gain honour in this famous battle as, for this day, class has been erased.
Generally, Henry’s speeches are structured to impress and persuade his audience but there key moments of reflection as in Act 4, scene 1 in which Henry shows a very introspective side to his personality. At the beginning of this scene Henry disguises himself in a cloak and talks with the soldiers. In doing this, Henry shows himself to be a people’s king. It is a clever approach as he can find out how the soldiers are feeing and try to persuade them in favour of the king. Henry tries to relate to his men when he tells his soldiers that “I think the King is but a man, as I am. The violet smells to him as it doth to me. . . His ceremonies laid by, in his nakedness he appears but a man” Henry clearly understands that the difference between him and other men lies only in his material wealth that comes from his position as king, he may be rich and powerful, but he too has hopes and fears. Williams questions Henry’s motives as the soldiers do not know whether or not the king’s reasons for being in France are particularly worthy, ‘If the cause be not good.’ He also challenges the claims Henry has made that he is in no way to blame for damage caused by his war arguing that the king has the greatest moral responsibility. The argument that the soldiers do not know whether or not the king’s reasons for being in France are particularly worthy, ‘If the cause be not good,’ is a powerful one, and it is likely to match our own reservations about Henry as a hero. William sees the King as accountable for his soldiers death, ‘I am afeard there are few die well that die in a battle.’ Throughout the play, Henry has been arguing that he is in no way to blame for damage caused by his war, but Williams challenges Henry’s claims, arguing that the king has a moral responsibility to his soldiers. Henry continues to deny all responsibility on behalf of the king and he ignores the larger question of whether the king is responsible for his soldiers’ deaths and writes off the invasion as justified and ordained by God. Henry doesn’t concern himself with the issue of his moral responsibility: the audience might see Henry as thinking he is above everyone else.
The soliloquy after the soldiers exit is a true moment of vulnerability for the King and insight into an unexplored side of Henry in which his anguished soul is laid bare. Henry explores the burden of kingship and the responsibilities that come with such power, ‘Twin-born with greatness: subject to the breath/ Of every fool’ He is aware that he too is a ‘subject’ to his country and men and feels that he must shoulder everyone’s worries and concerns, ‘What infinite heartsease / Must kings neglect that private men enjoy?’ He offers a rare glimpse to the negative aspects of power so demonstrating his understanding of the distance between himself and his men.
He personifies ceremony as if it were a god, ‘What is thy soul of adoration’, in an attempt to discover what it means, concluding that ceremony is but a ‘proud dream / That playst so subtly with a King’s repose.’ Apparently agitated with the inadequacies and weakness of this empty display of majesty, Henry bitterly imagines the life of a slave; free from the hardships that come with great power. ‘but in gross brain little wots / What watch the King keeps to maintain the peace.’ The burst of alliteration emphasises his resentment and jealously towards the seemingly blissful ignorance of the common man. Here Henry could be seen as a sympathetic character, the audience find that he is troubled, which makes him more real as a human. Yet, his belittlement of the common man could be taken as very arrogant, he imagines the easy life of a slave when the reality was probably very different as seen with other common characters in the play.
In his final prayer, Shakespeare gives the audience an interesting insight into one of Henry’s insecurities, his concern over the ‘fault’ his father made in ‘compassing the crown.’ This crime seems to haunt him as his search for retribution demonstrates ‘I Richard’s body have interred new / and on it have bestowed more contrite tears…’ This doubt holds significance, as Henry appears to have an uncompromising certainty that he is the true king of France, but if his father stole his crown then he is not the true king even of England.
In the final scene the audience see Henry left alone with Catherine and Alice as he awkwardly makes courtship speeches. He poses as an unpolished warrior, ‘Fair Catherine, and most fair, / Will you vouchsafe to teach a soldier terms’, and presents himself as an ordinary man while using prose that could be a reference of his past and his rise from the common man’s world ‘I am glad thou canst speak no better English,…thou wouldst find me such a plain king…’ Henry has given far too many brilliant orations during the play for the audience to believe that he is no good at speaking. The courtship seems to be dictated by rules and strategies and the lack of passion demonstrate how Catherine is being used as a political pawn; she barely understands the language her suitor speaks and as she points out when Henry asks her if she will “have” him, the decision her father’s to make. The way that he arranges terms of peace to maximize his own advantage, show that he is a master of political manoeuvring. Henry is shown here as a shrewd politician as he ensures that he is named inheritor of France.
Although the way in which Henry treats his future wife and his asking for her Catherine’s consent to the marriage could be perceived as Shakespeare reassuring the audience that he will accept his role as a husband with the same commitment and faith with which he has accepted the role of kin and he will respect her.
Henry can appear to be a great leader or a cynic who uses the seemingly corrupt, church to justify his actions. In presenting the Henry as a ruthless protagonist, but also the hero of the play, Shakespeare addresses the nature of leadership and its relationship to morality. The play proposes that the qualities that define a good ruler are not necessarily the same qualities that define a good person. is an extraordinarily good leader, he is intelligent, focused, and inspiring to his men. However in becoming a great king, Henry is forced to act in a way that, were he a common man might seem immoral.
