Henry IV: Part I
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William Shakespeare in Henry IV: Part I tells the story of part of the history of England, when Henry IV as king is surrounded by enemies, facing civil war in England, and unable to fulfill his earlier promise to lead a force to the Holy Land on a crusade. The plot of the play covers the time when the Percies are in rebellion. The story concerns not only these historical events but also the concern of a father for his apparently lazy son. henry's son Hal spends his time in the company of low-lifes, notably one John Falstaff, at the local tavern. The absence of his son forces Henry to depend more and more on young Hotspur. Shakespeare uses conceptions of time to define the characters, their attitudes toward the world, and the nature of the events of which they are a part. an examination of the nature of time with reference to Hal, Hotspur, and Falstaff will show how this is accomplished and how it deepens the play's characterizations and thematic meanings. Henry, Prince of wales, is the son of the king and as such the heir to the throne. yet he seems not to take his position at all seriously. Instead, he spends his time in the local tavern with man like Falstaff and plays practical jokes on his friends. Hal is also a character who never seems to express any genuine emotion. He is the center of the play, but in many ways he is a dead center, or at least a dormant one. He seems disaffected with the life of his time even though he seems as well to have thrown himself i
. . .
sweet wag, when thou art king, let us that are squires of the night's body be called thieves of the day's beauty (I.ii.23-25).
Falstaff serves as more than a foil for young Hal. He is also the voice of an old man trying to hold onto his youth, and he might be seen as an image from the future, an image of what Hal might become if he does not change, an image of what his father fears he will become. Hotspur is the ideal of what the king wants his son to be, and Falstaff is the reality of the present that makes the father fear for what his son will become. Yet, in truth this would not be as terrible as the King may believe. Falstaff is lazy and dedicated too much to pleasure, but he also tries to make others happy and shows that he has a good heart. This is more than young Hal manages to do, for it is not clear that he has any useful emotional makeup at all.
The desire of the king for a son more like Hotspur evokes this cry from the father, a cry that looks to the past for some answer that will make the present more palatable:
O that it could be prov'd
That some night-tripping fairy had exchang'd
In cradle clothes our children where they lay,
And call'd mine Percy, his Plantagenet!
Then would I have his Harry, and he
. . .
Some common words found in the essay are:
Iiii236-238 Hotspur's, John Falstaff, Henry Prince, Iii23-25 Falstaff, Prince Hotspur, Iii1 Hal, Hal Falstaff, Shrewsbury Harry, Henry Percy, Ii86-90 Hal, thy sword, king son, john falstaff, henry iv, lend thy sword, local tavern, son hotspur, future hal, future orientation, lend thy, falstaff battlefield,
Approximate Word count = 2103
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)
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