After the battle and Hal’s defeat of Hotspur, Hal receives word that Sir Walter Blunt has been killed in battle. He shows his respect for blunt by admirably praising his services and loyalty towards his country and for never stammering in the line of duty.
Hal also praises his archenemy Hotspur for his loyalty and bravery for his side and beliefs:
“For worms, brave Percy. Fare thee well
great heart!”
But without a doubt, Hal’s greatest act of bravery, courage and honour was before his courageous battle with Hotspur when he saved his fathers life at the hands of Douglas. He interrupts his father and Douglas fighting as the King is in danger and threatens Douglas:
“Hold up thy head, vile Scot, or thou art like
never to hold it up again!”
He battles Douglas and Douglas flees. This shows a tremendous amount of bravery and honour to his father.
At the end of the battle, Falstaff claims he killed Percy himself and Hal didn’t. Hal modestly accepts this allegation from Falstaff saying:
“For my part, if a lie may do thee grace, I’ll gild it
with the happiest terms I have.”
Hal’s turnaround from being dishonourable and mischievous and hanging in taverns with the lower classes to being a very honourable figure in the play and a very suitable heir to the throne came after a conversation with his father, the King as he voiced his concerns and worries for his sons place as heir to the throne in explaining that the way the he is behaving was what led to himself taking over the role as the King from Richard. Hal shows a high level of maturity by immediately changing after this conversation.
Hotspur, another key character in the play also has a remarkable amount of bravery and courage for what he believes in. Although it is against the King, he shows an immense amount. However in comparison to Hal, shows little dishonourableness, the only controversial moment being when he over exaggerates the battle Glendower was in.
Hotspur also shows a great level of honour by also offering to face Hal one-on-one to save the lives of many innocent people and settle the dispute. Hotspur makes this offer without the knowledge that Hal made the same proposal. Despite the fact the Hotspur his battle against Hal, whilst dying he’s hurt by the fact that he has lost his name, rather then his life:
“I better brook the loss of brittle life than those proud titles
you hast won of me.”
This also shows a stupendous amount of honour and courage.
Falstaff is a knight to the king and also is a main character in the play, however he shows huge amounts of dishonour by, despite his position to the King robbing helpless, innocent victims and accepting bribes. When preparing an army for the King, he creates money for himself, rather then creating a strong army for battle by selecting the weaker people who he knows will die in battle so he can keep their money. These people do die, none the wiser to Falstaff’s scheme.
Falstaff also pretends to be dead during the battle, which shows cowardice and dishonour so he can avoid fighting. After the battle he claims to have killed Hotspur himself, accusing Hal of lying. This is a great act of dishonour both towards Hal and Hotspur and a great act of treachery:
“I grant you I was down, and out of breath, and so was he; but
we rose both at an instant, and fought a long hour by
Shrewsbury clock. If I may be believed, so: if not, let them that
could reward valour bear the sin upon their my death, I gave
him this wound in the thigh; if the man were alive and would
deny it, ‘zounds, I would make him eat a piece of my sword.”
Falstaff also discusses honour in the play. He believes it is just a word and means nothing if you die:
“What is honour, a word?”
He also shows dishonour by exaggerating the story of when he was robbed as a joke because he is unaware it was a joke.
There are also plenty other characters in the play that show honour and courage. Prince John, the second son of the King shows signs early on in the play as well as ‘the valiant Sir Walter Blunt’ who died in battle for his King and Country and similarly Douglas showed bravery and the opposing side, for the rebels. Not to mention all the soldiers who died in battle. Also there was Glendower who was taken prisoner in a battle at the beginning of the play.
Personally, I feel there is nobody who came close to the amount of honour Hal proved himself to have in this play. Despite his dishonourable and rebellious behaviour at the beginning of the play, he came through to win the respect of others, win the battle and save the life of his father, showing the most bravery, courage, maturity to transform, loyalty and honour in this play.
