Qualities and Weaknesses of Shakespeare's Henry V as a King

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Qualities and Weaknesses of Shakespeare's Henry V as a King

In Shakespeare's day, historical fact had already merged with legend

to create the picture of an almost perfect King but the character of

Henry V is not a simple one as it has many aspects. By looking into

the King's manners in his speeches, strengths and weaknesses and

behaviour throughout the play I will try to analyse how King Henry's

character progresses and changes to show why I believe Shakespeare

represented the character in this way. An insight into Henrys

character is shown in Act One Scene One when he became King as the

Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Ely are speaking of Henry.

The Archbishop of Canterbury exclaims, "The King is full of grace and

fine regard." To which Ely replies "And a true lover of the Holy

Church." These both are qualities expected of a noble and honourable

king that shows Henry himself is honourable. However Canterbury tells

us this was not always so, "The breath no sooner left his fathers

body, But the wilderness, mortified in him, Seemed to die too." These

lines tell the reader how the King left his frivolous youth behind him

and accepted responsibility of being a King when his father died

therefore becoming a king committed to his people, country and duty

with his willingness to give up a life of constant fun.

In Act Three Scene One Henrys speech is world famous as well as

showing a lot about Henry character and how he feels about becoming

King of England. "Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more;"

the two words "dear friends" tells the reader that Henry considers

himself as an equal to his soldiers and also shows how his use of

language for encouraging his men. Churchill has also used such

speeches for this as he has recognised this as a famous speech in his

efforts in the 2nd World War as he knew this speech would have made

Henry popular as in his speeches he mentions many aspects of life from

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