Simile is also used in a similar way to personification as it uses imagery to establish the qualities of Henry’s maturity, and therefore superior status. Canterbury employs the simile, ‘Consideration, like an angel’ (line 28) to emphasise Henry’s ‘fair regard’ for his people, expressing his honest status to the audience. The simile also presents Henry with heavenly qualities of an ‘angel’ suggesting him as godly, and therefore conveys his powerful position as a Christian king in the eyes of his people and the audience. This idea shown is more likely to be believed by the audience as Shakespeare uses the highly respected church figures to glorify Henry’s characteristics.
Shakespeare also achieves the view of Henry’s powerful Christian status through the hyperbolic lexis of the speech. As a main aspect descriptive writting, Shakespeare uses adjectives in Canterbury’s speech to display Henry’s supremacy as a King to the audience. He suggests that Henry is surrounded by ‘celestial spirits’ (line 31), praising him as divine in a highly turgid manner to emphasise how he is such a highly esteemed Christian leader. The euphony of these two words together further stresses his divine/heavenly Christian status towards the audience.
Shakespeare’s use of command verbs also adds to the superlative language used throughout Canterbury’s speech, heightening Henry’s great qualities as an influential leader to the audience. The command verbs list all the excellent qualities of Henry establishing the audience’s view that Henry’s status is a greatly admired. For example the command verbs ‘hear’, ‘list’, and ‘turn’ suggest the view of Henry as a high-ranking authoritative leader with a powerful influence on his people. The imperative mood of these words broadens the audience’s understanding that Henry’s status as a King is not to be reckoned with.
Henry’s instantaneous change in character has been emphasised through the use of sibilance presenting to the audience his new responsibilities as a high status person. Canterbury’s use of sibilance ‘such a sudden scholar’ stresses how readily Henry took on the distinguished position of King, suggesting to the audience how rightfully he was meant for the role. The imperative mood of the adverb ‘sudden’ emphasises his immediate change of attitudes to his new high status kingly duties, establishing Henry as a swift decision maker showing his decisive status.
Henry’s status in the third extract (Act II, scene IV, line 48-64) is highly acclaimed by the King of France who warns that he is not to be taken lightly, as they do not want to return to their ‘familiar paths’(battle of Crecy). The French King’s frank and figurative speech praises Henry’s qualities emphasising his powerful position. At the start of the extract the French King establishes Henry’s power through the following example: ‘Think we King Harry strong;/And, princes, look you so strongly arm to meet him’ (line 48-49). Shakespeare does this by using command verbs such as ‘look’ and ‘think’ in an imperative tone to stress that Henry is a perfect ‘strong’ warrior. Shakespeare also uses a noun group, a common feature of literary texts, to convey Henry’s superior status. The noun group ‘strongly arm’ connotes that the French Prince has equipped weapons on himself to meet Henry suggesting his concern for his welfare, and therefore conveying to the audience that Henry has a high superiority.
Throughout this extract the French King compares Henry’s qualities to that of his great ancestor King Edward, who defeated the French at the battle of Crecy. Shakespeare’s use of metaphor to imply the similarities of Henry and Edwards qualities is conveyed through an extension of agriculture comparing the growth of a cultivated plant to the growth of Edward’s power and therefore Henry’s as well. The extended metaphor is found in this following example (line 58-63):
‘Up in the air, crown’d with the golden sun,
Saw his heroical seed, and smiled to see him,
Mangle the work of nature and deface
The patterns that by god and by French fathers
Had twenty years been made. This is a stem
Of this victorious stock;’
The figurative use of the words ‘air’, ‘sun’, ‘seed’, ‘stem’ and ‘stock’ are all associated with the growth and cultivation of plants representing an organised/controlled and therefore good nature. Shakespeare’s use of these specific nouns stresses how Henry’s growth in power is similar to that of Edward, and it is ever rising, emphasised by their parallel quality of cordiality. This image portrayed supports the audience’s knowledge of patriotic English royal history so that they can more easily relate to the power of Henry’s status. This figurative lexis of plants to describe Henry’s qualities is also found in other scenes of the play. For example as stated earlier Ely uses metaphoric language of strawberry growth to establish Henry’s maturity. In act II, scene IV, Constable also uses plant imagery ‘as gardeners do with ordure hide those roots/That shall first spring and be most delicate’ (line 39-40) to convey that Henry’s wildness was all pretend, hiding his power to therefore mislead the French that his status should not be feared. This shows the audience that Henry has a predetermined matter and in this case reflects on his status of war with the French.
Shakespeare uses a pun in this extract to further emulate the image of Henry’s powerful status to the audience. This is done through the use of imagery ‘mountain sire on mountain standing’ (line 57), which compares Henry to King Edward who at the battle of Crecy stood on the mountain and also in the ascendant. The specific choice of the noun ‘mountain’ suggests Henry is rising in power similar to Edward, who rose in power at the battle of Crecy. The repetition of the word ‘mountain’ stresses how quickly his status of power is rising in the face of war with the French. This view suggests to the audience that Henry’s superior status is eminent.
The second extract displays a complete contrasting view to extracts one and three with the use of comedic low life characters from Henry’s past establishing negative views on Henry’s status. The unformulated structure of the characters speech conveys a more realistic approach to the opinion of Henry, as there is no use of metaphors. Shakespeare may have done this to show the audience more sincere thoughts of Henry’s status through characters. As these characters are well known friends of Henry’s from previous plays it suggests to the audience that their views on his status will be more reliable as they have a closer relationship compared to his nobles.
The hyperbolic language used through this extract helps the audience to establish Henry’s status as a disrespected and callous person to the audience. Shakespeare conveys this image through exaggerated confrontational forms of lexis, for instance ‘The King hath run bad humours on the knight’ (line 97). The idiom ‘run bad humours’ suggests that Henry caused Falstaff’s melancholy, portraying him as a callous person in the eyes of the audience. Shakespeare stresses how heartless Henry is further more through the imperative mood of the proper noun ‘King’, emphasising that once he gained his royal duties he then became unfeeling. This unfeeling nature of Henry standing in the eyes of the audience explains that his high esteemed status is not as respected by his people as first thought, through Canterbury’s speech. Nym and Hostess support this callous view of Henry further on in the play by describing how brutally the King has ‘fractured’ and ‘killed’ his heart. This in turn displays Henry as a normal person who does do wrong at some stages of his life. The phrase that follows ‘that’s the even of it’ suggests that it is the truth that Henry is no more than a normal person like everyone else, he simply has higher status responsibilities but that doesn’t make it acceptable for him to be callous.
These three extracts combined with other various scenes of the play show Henry’s differential status through various characters points of view. Overall the images of Henry’s qualities convey him as a high status Christian monarch with resolute loyalty to his duties and responsibilities, often suppressing his feelings to uphold the law and therefore be a respected person by his people. Foregoing his relationship with Falstaff shows his heartless nature of his status but also conveys his power as he establishes that his country comes before his own feelings, a typical trait of a good leader.
