Henry will have grown up learning all the techniques that he needed o become king, including persuasiveness, rhetoric and confidence. The public speaking and the persuasiveness come in now when he makes the two most well known speeches - Harfleur (act 3 scene 1) ‘once more unto the breach dear friends’ and the st Crispin’s day speech (act 4 scene 3) ‘this day is called the feast of saint Crispian’. I the Harfleur speech Henry use’s several distinct schemes. He opens his speech with a repetition, "Once more onto the breach, dear friends, once more," which implies that they have all been working hard and are tired of fighting, and he realizes this as much as them. He opens the speech this way so he can appeal to their patriotic spirit, and tell how cowardly it would be to give up now. At the same time, he sets a common ground between them, one soldier to another and them to he king saying ‘dear friends’. He goes on to motivate them in battle, stirring them up by saying, ‘lend the eye a terrible aspect,’ implying that he doesn’t want the scene to be a pretty one. Another example is
‘Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,
Hold hard the breath, and bend up every spirit’
Henry then goes on to make an analogy between them and Alexander the great ‘Fathers like so many Alexanders’ this is again a motivating line, as they are personally being ‘made part of’ Alexander the greats army, the best army has ever been.
Henry is very good at making his speech personal to the individual and not as a whole group. He recognizes that many of them are wishing they were at peace when he says, "In peace there's nothing so becomes a man’ and ‘you good yeoman’ the ‘you’ picking out each individually.
In his st Crispin’s day speech Henry again uses his powers of persuasiveness and confidence. When he says that any men who fought on st Crispin’s day will be remembered saying
‘Then hall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words,’
This motivates the people again by saying they will be remembered for their heroic and brave acts. Again as in the Harfleur speech he draws the people in to his by making it more personal
‘We few, we happy few, we band of Brothers –
For he today that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother;’
These three lines alone are packed with persuasive language. He makes it intimate by saying ‘we band of brothers’. You talk to you brother differently to how you would talk to an audience so it draws them in, makes them listen again. Then to reinstate this he goes on to say ‘Shall be my brother’. When he says ‘his blood with me’ he doesn’t just mean that they will be fighting and he will be commanding from distance out of harms way, it implies that he will be in the hick of it fighting with them with as much danger of getting killed as they have. As most of the people in the congregation were peasants and farmers so very poor, when Henry says
‘And gentlemen in England, now abed,
Shall this themselves accursed they were not here’
They are being made better than the nobles of England which is a great honour, and as Henry said it no one can dispute it.
When Henry speaks to individuals he always seems to get his one way. Talking to the governor of Harfleur Henry doesn’t want his men to have to fight because he knows they are weak and tired and there is disease, but he’s not willing to admit this to the governor. This means that he has to use persuasive techniques. ‘The gates of mercy shall be shut up’ implying that they will take no prisoners and everything will be burnt ‘Till in her ashes she lie buried’. He then goes on to say that ‘Your naked infants spitted upon spikes’ this is a very graphic, gruesome line that is a lot more than just a threat. Although Henry is still seen in a god light because he gives them a chance, they know what he will do if they dot open up.
After the battle of Agincourt Henry has to woo Katherine, this is one point when he talks to someone individually. He says ‘I know no ways to mince I in love, but directly to say “I love you”’ showing that he is not skilled in enticing people and putting o a show so this must be heart felt. He, the king humbles himself before her ‘take me a simple soldier’
There aren’t many examples of when Henry gives us his private feelings as he is constantly around other people. However just before the battle he says a prayer in which he tells god of all his fears and the burden of kingship. He prays hat he will win the war so that it was justified and not fruitless or in vain. Also if he was to win then he people at home would like him, as all they remember are his drunken days.
‘As, if God please, they shall – my ransom then
Will soon be levied’
When he is talking to Katherine it is not his true feelings as has to do it as part of the peace process.
To conclude Shakespeare presents Henry in a good way always because at the time when writing against rulers was punishable by death. Also the people wanted to know that Henry was a good king so more tickets would sell.