The Development of Prince Hal into a Leader in William Shakespeare's Henry IV Although William Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1 depicts Henry Bolingbroke's troubles following the usurpation of England's thrown, the more consequential plot concerns the transformation of Prince Hal from a tavern crony into the next King of England. This is a play of contrast where Prince Hal is caught between two father figures who represent contradicting ideals. The figure most notable in the Prince's youth is Falstaff, a materialist who rejects responsibility and has a childish demeanor, thus providing a comparison with the Prince's own youthfulness. In opposition to the jovial Falstaff comes Henry IV, the biological father of the Prince, who is time honored with responsibility and political authority, providing a model for the Prince in his maturation. This play becomes the study of Prince Hals's development in character as he observes the figures around him to distinguish what makes an effective King, along with his detachment from the youthful rebellion within the tavern setting as he becomes an adult with the political prowess to become the next King of England. The growth of character in Prince Hal as an irresponsible youth associated with a tavern gang into the authoritative cunning King Henry V is founded in the Prince's intuition to humble himself during his youth in order to gain the favor and admiration of the English people. In a monologue the Prince suggest his intentions for glorification as he advances from the tavern gloom by stating, Yet herein will I imitate the sun, Who doth permit the base contagious clouds To smother up his beauty from the world, That, when he please again to himself, ... ... middle of paper ... ...al prowess gain him the throne of England and consequently a successful reign. Prince Hal's character matures through ideology set forth by his father, and his quest for the throne has both positive and negative results. One of the negative results is the loss of former friends along with gaining characteristics that may be characterized as cold, stern and domineering. However, it is this personality that wins the favor of King Henry IV and eventually the throne of England. It is also the attributes that allow him to reign successfully in a just manner without being usurped. The tavern allows Hal to develop these characters and adept himself with the common people of England to gain their favor but also become aware of how better to serve their needs, thus Prince Hal develops a universal character that proves worthy of a king. Bibliography:
Hal is a cold, calculating Machiavellian ruler. According to Machiavelli’s popular theory, being a successful leader has nothing to do with being a nice person or doing the right thing. Instead, it’s about being inventive, manipulative, crafty, and willful. Hal is an intelligent character who put all those attributes to work when he articulated a grand plan to fool everyone around him in order to gain power. One critic claims that traditionally there are two common ways to interpret Prince Hal's development. The first is to see it as a celebration of a great king in training who grows in his responsibility and develops into a mature political leader. The second view sees Prince Hal as a cold Machiavel who uses his friends as means to a political end, without much regard for their feelings. (Johnston 1).
shall firstly do a summery of the play and give a basic image of what
Considering their fearsome adversary, in private Falstaff asks Prince Hal “art not thou horribly afraid” (II.4.337-338)? His question means to provoke an honest reflection on their dangerous undertaking. Falstaff does not mean to interrogate or belittle Prince Hal’s honor. Instead, Falstaff asks about his friend’s true emotional state and moves beyond the conventional appearance of knightly toughness. Prince Hal responds to the question feigning, “Not a whit, i’faith. I lack some of thy instinct” (II.4.339). The more regal Prince Hal becomes in his ambitions, the more he aligns himself with the values of the monarchy. Falstaff reveals how these values of stoicism and bravery can be delusional. If Prince Hal were honest, he would admit some degree of doubt about war. With his new regal stance; however, he distances himself from true sentiment. Falstaff is unabashed in asking matters of the heart. Although Falstaff does not get an honest reply, he exposes Price Hal’s pretension and with it the tradition of
V. Prince Hal did not stay in court and prepare to be a King but spent
This is exemplified by Hal, the future Henry V. At the beginning of the play, Hal is not a very promising young prince—everyone in the kingdom does “forethink [his] fall” (3.2.38) because of the company of degenerates he keeps, his frequent patronization of the tavern, and his leisure activities of robbing pilgrims. Critics excuse these earlier behaviours as a disguise because of Hal’s first soliloquy at the end of the second scene of act one. In that soliloquy, Hal explains that this disguise will serve as “foil” that will make his “reformation” “show[s] more goodly and attract[s] more eyes” (1.2.150-52). However, judging from the fact that he easily concedes the glory of killing Hotspur to Falstaff, saying that “ if a lie may do thee grace,/ I’ll gild it with the happiest terms I have” (5.3.147-48)—a glory that he promises to Henry IV as a token of his reformation (3.2), a glory that will surely redeem his past behaviours in the eyes of the multitude—it is clear that what is said is just an excuse for him to enjoy himself just a little longer, before he has to “pay the debt [he] never promised” (1.3.146-47). This also corroborates with the theory that there has been “less autonomy in self-fashioning” and that “family, state” imposed a “more rigid” control over self-fashioning (Greenblatt 1)—in Hal case, his father (family) and his future subjects (state) and the
The subject of human nature has great emphasis in “The Prince”. Human beings are viewed as rational decision makers who try to maximize their self-interest. They are inclined to help whoever will give them the most benefits and by definition, may easily betray someone to whom they were previously loyal seeing a better opportunity. A large part of being a prince or a politician is being able to lead people, and therefore it is of utter importance in how to deal with their behavior. “Here a question arises: whether it is better to be loved than feared, or the reverse. The answer is, of course, that it would be best to be both loved and feared. But since the two rarely come together, anyone compelled to choose will fin...
that he's got a chance of becoming the new King. But how can he become
became the king of England. This was possible under feudalism. Feudalism is a form of
In conclusion, the contrasting pronouns “I” and “him,” and shift in point of views force Prince Hal to demonstrate that he is trying to avoid the responsibility that will inevitably come with being King. Prince Hal is able to maliciously manipulate both the reader and the public in
benefit to them as individuals. Machiavelli further goes on to question the loyalty of the citizens and advises the Prince that men
...som,” cannot be a proper father to Hal because he is a corrupt, fat and cowardly knight who acts as one of the major burdens to the prodigal son’s return (Shakespeare 79, 115). The Prince’s actions, which Professor Ball argues “[explain] ... what the character ... is willing to do to satisfy the want,” show that he desires to follow the royal example of his real father: he fights and kills Hotspur, remains at the King’s side and plans to march to Wales to eliminate Glendower and the rest of the rebels (63). The Prince no longer imitates, but embodies the royal sun bursting from the “contagious clouds.”
Henry V is not a simple one as it has many aspects. By looking into
Enlightening persons from the average Joe to the high monarchs of countries, The Prince is one of the best, if not the best, books relating to politics of all time. Machiavelli explains how to gain power in a government and once you gain it, he explains how to keep it. The first few chapters of the book set the tone for the rest of the writing. Early in his work, he says that all high powers can be separated into two totally different groups: principalities and republics. The Prince is written with dictatorial type regimes, and not with republican regimes. Niccolò seems to ignore the republican regimes which must mean that, at the time, he did not think that this would get very far or would not help anybody. Machiavelli goes onto explain the various principalities and princes. He creates an outline for the rest of the book during this explanation. To become a prince, he says that there is no way any normal person can become one, as the way this is acquired is either by hereditary means or is appointed to by the stat...
The book The Prince was a book of advice to politicians regarding how gain power and keep that power. The title The Prince is not about someone who has inherited land and a decedent to a king. In Machiavelli’s perspective a prince was a man of the citizens....
ambition that makes him the way he is. This is why I consider it a circumstance