The St Crispains speech brings us to another subject of the play, for here Henry is showing qualities of leadership and we see that he is a charismatic orator. Shakespeare portrays Henry as the perfect king but not entirely a perfect person. Henry knows the importance of leadership, that if he is a good leader he will gain the respect and love of his men who will in turn fight hard to win the battle and so Henry will gain glory and power. However Henry says that power comes with toil, ‘hard condition is twin born with greatness.’ Henry knows not to treat his men as inferiors; he knows how to treat all kinds of men as Shakespeare demonstrates when Henry tours his camp in disguise. Henry uses repetition when he refers to his men as ‘we few, we happy few, we band of brothers’ these words, combined with the literary device would make his men will feel honored to be considered a friend of the king.
In contrast to Henry we have the Dauphin, who is portrayed as a bad leader by Shakespeare. The French in general are disunited, they quarrel among themselves which is a very bad thing in a time of war. They are not set a good example by their leader, the Dauphin who turns against his father in saying “if my father renders fair return, it is against my will.” He also says that his horse is his mistress, showing he is more concerned with his horse than the war. He is very complacent and arrogant, he boasts and is confident that the French will win the war, he is so sure that he thinks it an unfair match and considers sending the English ‘dinners and fresh suits’ and their ‘fasting horses provender’. The Dauphin does not talk to his men directly; he does not live in the same conditions as them, instead he treat them as inferiors and invaluable.
The two kings contrasting tactics on leadership go head to head when Henry and his army take on the French and despite the odds being staked against them, the English are victorious. This proves that Henry is the better leader and therefore Henry’s tactics were successful and we can learn from them. The two leaders relationships with their men is demonstrated again when, after the battle the French ask for permission to ‘sort our nobles from our common men. For many of our princes… lie drowned and soaked in mercenary blood’, an example of strong language and visual imagery, to demonstrate their arrogance and snobbishness. Henry however is mourning the loss of his men and carrying them himself back to give them a proper Christian burial as he says ‘Let... the dead with charity enclosed in clay’.
Religion is an important aspect of the war against France. At the very start of the play we see Henry consulting the Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop Ely about whether or not God is on their side. Henry does not want to commit any sin and so will not proceed with the war until he is convinced that God approves. Henry is very religious and turns to God for guidance and support. Before Agincourt we see him pleading with God to let him win and then when he does he thanks him saying that all the praise and glory ‘is His only’. Through the play we are able to learn that religion in the Middle Ages was important and decisions on all levels were influenced by it.
The play is a historical play. Therefore we can learn some European history from it however it is important to remember that the characters are fiction and many things are exaggerated (for instance the numbers of soldiers) and so although they are based on the truth, not everything is necessarily correct. The actual events though are correct and we can learn about some of the famous historical events such as the battle of Agincourt.
We also learn about laws. In the beginning we learn a lot about the Salique law but throughout the play we learn about the rules of war and etiquette; The Dauphin thinking it wrong to fight an army which is obviously going to lose so he considers sending ‘them dinners and fresh suits, and give their fasting horses provender, and after fight with them’ as perhaps then it would be a fairer match, Henry being furious and upset when the French break an unwritten law and kill the baggage boys during the battle as he demonstrates when he finds out by saying ‘I was not angrey since I came to France until this instant, and Katherine being shocked when Henry tries to kiss her are some examples. Leading on from this, we also learn about relationships, the play shows that the English army were, despite a few quarrels, very close. The French nobles however did not always get on. The relationship between Katherine and Henry is also interesting as though they do not know each other, are betrothed because it will bring peace between the two countries, this shows that marriages were made often for status and benefit, not for love.
The plot of ‘Henry V’ revolves around the war between England and France in the time of Henry V. Therefore is can be expected that war should be one of the main themes and it is in fact the main subject so the first part of the statement ‘ ‘Henry V’ is primarily considered with war’ is true. However it would be narrow-minded to say that ‘we can learn little else from the study of this play’ as throughout it there are several other themes that can be explored and valuable insights are given, particularly on the subject of leadership
Therefore I conclude that Henry V is primarily concerned with war but we can learn a lot about other subjects through the study of the play as there are other important aspects to war than just fighting and so through the feature of these aspects on warfare, we can learn about them as a whole.
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