He asks us to do this because in Shakespearean times they would not have been able recreate the vast battle fields of France or the English royal court, so a chorus is necessary to remind the audience to be kind and understanding towards this. The chorus spends a lot of time apologising for this. He also asks them to hear sounds that they cannot recreate.
Next I am going to talk about the mood in the play.
In the next chorus of act 4 the chorus tell us that it is the night before the battle of Agincourt, and describes the scene in the English camp. Three phrases tell us a lot about the sounds of the camp and they are “The hum of either army’s stilly sounds,” “the whispers of the guards,” and “the armourers hammering away at rivets to fit the knights armour.” The army’s stilly sounds are the buss of low whispers and movement around the camp and the whispers of the guards from either side. These sounds make me fell uneasy, threatened, and uncomfortable because they are to quiet and when people whisper they normally have something to hide and this makes people uneasy.
The chorus uses words that describe the place as very ugly and dank such as foul and ugly witch. I think I would hate to be there, the place seems very uninviting and disgusting. There are some supernatural images used in this part of the play like horrid ghosts and ugly witch. They give a very eerie and creepy feel to this passage. The chorus makes the passage seem to pass very slowly by using some words that make time drag on such as tediously and patiently.
Next I am going to discuss the contrast between the scenes and characters.
The scenes I am going to contrast are act 1, scene 2 and act 2, scene 1. In act 1 scene 2 Henry is presented with a gift of tennis balls from the French dauphin takes these as an insult and precedes to react badly and very wittily begins to insult the Dauphin. In act 2, scene 1 the characters Nym and Pistol are arguing about a woman. This is a very petty argument concerning no others. In this scene the ‘low-life’ characters use much simpler language than the king Henry uses. They use vulgar insults and swear at each other. They are arguing over a very trivial matter and this show their lack of education and sophistication. In contrast Henry uses very complex and highly developed language.
Henry insult the dauphin by using a metaphor that he will go over to France and use the tennis balls to play the French. He really means that he will go to France and fight them. This poetic device makes him appear very educated and sophisticated. He also uses other poetic devices such as alliterations like ‘Mock mother,’ ‘pleasant prince ,’ and ‘merry message.’ This is the total opposite to the crude abuse used by Nym and Pistol such as “pish for thee,” “ice dog,” and “shog off.” Henry does not use this language because he is educated and uses complex language.
Nym likes to end his sentences with ‘and that’s the humour of it.’ This makes him seem very annoying and stupid ending most of his sentences with the same thing. The conflict in Henrys scene is what leads to the final blow for Henry, this is to be taken very seriously and should not be in humour, where as the low-life characters scene is just a bit of a joke, something to break up the seriousness of the play. The ironic thing is that there used to be Henrys friend before he became king. I think these scenes are well conveyed and Shakespeare is very effective in using language to communicate his ideas about the characters.
