Henry makes a very powerful first impression. Immediately the audience is struck by the way every other character seems to fear or respect him. Henry speaks to the lords and bishops like they are equals. He also speaks to them in a very polite manner. This tells the audience that he is a very polite person and seems to care about these bishops and lord very much, as if they were his family. I think that their first impressions are going to be high and they will expect him to do well, and be a glorious king, he will be polite and will fight for the country. At this point, I think he is doing quite well and is living up to the expectations held by the audience.
Henry shows that he has many good qualities in act one, scene two. Henry asks the bishops if it is the right thing to do to attack France. This tells the audience that he is having second thoughts about trying to invade France so that he can become King over in France. Henry’s concern is that if they go to war with France, it is a great chance for the Scots to invade England. Whilst all of their men are in France, the country will not be as heavily guarded as it normally would be. This shows that he is concerned for the good of the country, as well as going to war and becoming king of France. Henry shows how strong he is by stating that they can speak freely of their acts, and that he can rule large countries without failing. This shows that he is being brave and trying to make sure that the people that he reigns over do not revolt against him for trying to invade France. At this point the audience see Henry as a very powerful king, and that he cares for his country as well as himself and the war he is about to start. Some Kings would be focused on the war, not everything, this shows that he is committed to being a good King.
However, after all the high expectations the audience have of Henry and the good qualities he shows when he enters, his behaviour in the rest of the scene show first appearances can be misleading. The audience see a different side to Henry at this point. Henry asks the ambassadors to speak in a very polite way, as friends. Henry has been sent some tennis balls. The Dauphin is saying that he is still a little boy and that he should stop playing games. The audience would be annoyed at what the Dauphin has said about Henry as the audience have been convinced that Henry was a good king and that he does his job well. Henry states that he will definitely invade France; he will put his racket to the balls that the Dauphin has sent him, and fight back. This shows that Henry is reasonably clever, “shall strike his father’s crown into the hazard this shows the audience that he is determined to take the throne over France”. You can tell that Henry takes the insult personally, as he is making sure that he is going to invade France, this is putting tension on him as he feels that he must invade France, as to not look a complete idiot. Henry overreacts by saying that he was going over to France now “Tell you the Dauphin I am coming on, To venge me as I may and to put forth” This shows he is losing it, he is concentrating on paying back the Dauphin, than he is bothered about his own country. Henry decides to invade France because of the insult that the Dauphin sent to him, this has made him angry, so now he is going to seek revenge. I think that the audience’s response has changed rapidly from the beginning to the end, as he has changed quite a lot, from a good and caring king, to an angry revenge seeker; this has all happened because the Dauphin sent him a few tennis balls and called him a little boy.
Shakespeare continues his ambiguity in Henry’s character throughout the play. For example, I will look in detail at the episode when Henry confronts the traitors in act two, scene two. The lords are discussing what they are going to do about the people who were sent over to Southampton to kill Henry. “’fore god on his trace is bold to trust these traitors”. This shows that Henry’s people are very angry by the fact that France sent over men to murder Henry so that he could not invade France. This shows that Henry’s leadership is slacking, as the lords seem to be trying to take over control of him. Henry has tricked the men by saying that he should be kind to the man who committed a crime, but the men said that he should be harsh with them, he then says that he knows what they are up to and that they are going to be punished harshly. He tricks them because he knows that they are going to try to kill him and so he decides to get them. This shows the audience that he is sly and cunning and knows what he is doing. Henry says that is angry by the fact of the men trying to kill him and so he decides that he is going to punish them severely. Henry is angry because the men had come to kill him, and that he was having a hard time then, he also was angry because he now had to deal with them as well as the French and the Scottish, as well as his own country. Henry decided to sentence them; he was getting very wound up and angry. The audience’s impression will be that he is losing control and is becoming annoyed about the Dauphin calling him a child when he wants to take over control of France as well as control over England.
To conclude, Shakespeare seems to want to present Henry as a combination of greatness and weakness. Overall, Shakespeare has shown Henry to be a great man by showing that he could take control over two countries and run them greatly due to his great skills at being king. Shakespeare showed that Henry has several weaknesses in several different ways, one of which was by using the Dauphin to call him a child, this shows that he can lose control quite easily, just by someone moderately insulting him
I think that he audience will see him as quite a strong king, even though he has several weaknesses. Shakespeare has shown him to be a good king; overall I think that Shakespeare built up the expectations of Henry so that the audience would keep on changing their personal views of Henry
