Characteristics of William Shakespeare´s Play

Henry V: Act 1 Prologue Analysis

Many of Shakespeare’s plays have unique scenes such as travelling to a different city or sailing on vast oceans that is difficult to present in a play. However, imagine a battle of thousands of men that must be displayed on a 50-meter radius stage, an impossible task. Some of Shakespeare’s plays have a unique character called the Chorus that is often found in the beginning of all the acts. The chorus’ role, like a narrator, is to give a brief overview of the next scene and to keep the audience engaged. Shakespeare’s Henry V was one of those plays where the chorus serves a different purpose in every act. Often times the chorus apologizes as a means of encouraging the audience to express its approval, this was a common technique in the drama of Shakespeare’s time. However, its general role is to fire the audience’s imagination with strong descriptive language that helps to overcome the visual limitation of the stage.

Though the Chorus fulfills several functions as narrator, apologizing for the limitations of the theater, explaining lapses of time a...