53 pages • 1 hour read
William ShakespeareHenry V
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1599A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Battles
Battles are a recurrent motif in Henry V, both in terms of plot and setting and in relation to characterization, theme development, and imagery.
The role of King Henry as a warrior-king and patriotic figurehead is supported by the play’s presentation of his talents as a leader, inspiring his army to win a war of great cultural significance in the English popular consciousness (both in William Shakespeare’s time and now). The siege of Harfleur and the Battle of Agincourt are essential to this characterization and to the play’s narrative, although the demands of visually representing a large-scale medieval war were beyond the staging capabilities of Shakespeare’s day. These limitations mean that the battles portrayed in Henry V have an important symbolic effect, and that their import is focused on the characterization of Henry and expressed through language rather than setting or stage effects. The play does not focus on the historical or tactical intricacies of military action in the field; rather, the battles represent broader ideas about character and narrative.
In particular, the play’s emphasis on English army as the underdog is key to Henry’s characterization as a great leader and to the suspense and heightened patriotism of the play. It is an example of Shakespeare’s ability to identify and manipulate a self-confessed national-cultural characteristic (in this case the widely recognized English “underdog complex”) in order to further his artistic aims. Not only are the English vastly outnumbered (exaggeratedly so in Shakespeare’s representation), but Henry explains to the French envoys that his men are exhausted, injured, and struggling to engage. The play makes it clear that the English are forced into the Battle of Agincourt, preferring to retreat to Calais if the French will allow. Henry’s frank request to do so (1.6) is astonishingly humble and shows that he values his soldiers’ lives; it also heightens the hubristic decision of the French to force the English into battle, as does the French braggadocio just before the battle (3.7). Furthermore, France’s status in Europe before the Hundred Years’ War meant that the French military was better equipped and supplied than their English counterparts. France was a large and dominant power at the time, with a robust feudal system for raising an army of nobles, knights, and trained men. The French fight in their own land, with all the benefits of reinforcements and supply chains unlike the English who are “all besmirched // with rainy marching in the painful field” (4.3.111-12). This accounts for the fact that so many of the French killed are nobility. The battles portrayed in Henry V emphasize the English as the significant underdogs. The English army overcome astonishing odds to achieve their victories, defeating the French army while losing hardly any men: Their victory is characterized as a matter of willpower overcoming physical might: “time has worn us into slovenry // But by the mass, our hearts are in the trim” (4.6.115-16). The play’s battles become an archetypal contest between the plucky English challenger and the dominant, arrogant French.
Battles are also used in the play as showing Henry’s maturity and the achievement of his potential. This is essential to his heroic role in the play, and to his character development from the dissolute young prince of the Henry IV dramas. Through his victory in battle, Henry V demonstrates why he is the rightful king, not just through inheritance but through personal and moral fitness for the role, and—the play emphasizes—divine right and favor. In both battles, the play focuses on Henry’s ability to inspire his men, as the battle scenes largely consist of his rousing and emotive speeches. The nature of these inspirational speeches is to focus on the unity and fraternity of his army, and his role as both leader and fellow soldier—the “brother” and compatriot of the common soldier. Despite their different backgrounds, Henry forges the men into a unified, cohesive group. He emphasizes their togetherness, which is then demonstrated in the heat of battle. The success in these battles is vindication for the right of Henry to rule, transforming him from the self-indulgent son of a usurper into the rightful King of England—and France. The battles have the symbolic power to ordain Henry with the justification for his kingship in a way that reinforces the importance of the royal line of succession. Henry inherits the title of King of England through his birth, yet he earns a parallel moral right to his position as a man in battle.
The nature of the French loss in the Battle of Agincourt is also symbolic. The French have more men, they are more internationally renowned, and they are fighting in their homeland against a leader who is presented as relatively young and inexperienced, a man whose potential lies in the “wonder[ous …] diff’rence” he will prove between his “greener days” and the maturity that he “masters” as king (2.4.134-37). The French’s—especially the Dauphin’s—underestimation of Henry breeds arrogance, sharply contrasting with the sober judgement of Henry and his commanders. The battle’s result suggests that the French soldiers do not believe in their leaders as the English believe in King Henry: The hubristic French leaders lack the charisma to inspire their troops in the way that he does, as they are portrayed as proud cavalry commanders, obsessed with the trappings of war as markers of status. The Battle of Agincourt demonstrates the stark contrast between the leaders on each side, emphasizing Henry’s sincerity and humility in contrast to the arrogance and ostentation of the French leaders. The battle is a symbolic demonstration of the failure of the French leadership.
Accents and Regional Identity
The play deliberately includes characters, like the officers and common soldiers in Henry’s army, who come from a variety of backgrounds. This is part of the play’s emphasis on the broad appeal of Henry as king, and his ability to bring his people together despite cultural or national differences. It is also part of how the play manages the complexity of the regional-national relationship within the British Isles, including the way this relationship had altered in the years between 1414 and 1599. In 1599, Elizabeth was Queen of England; this included Wales and controlled Ireland. Scotland was a separate kingdom; James VI of Scotland succeeded Elizabeth as James I England, beginning the eventual process of political union. In 1414, the relationship was more fractured and tumultuous. Wales formed part of the English Crown, but significant Welsh revolts occurred. Scotland was a separate nation, in ongoing conflict with England in the early 1400s, as the play references. Ireland had previously been largely conquered by Norman lords under the English Crown but, by 1414, English control in Ireland had been reduced to an area around Dublin. In bringing together soldiers of the four nations in unity, Shakespeare is deliberately blurring the conflicts between these nations in the medieval period in favor of emphasizing the growing political allegiances of the nations by 1599. In the medieval and Renaissance period most of the common soldiers would have been “private soldiers” or mercenaries rather than part of an ongoing commitment or forming a professional standing army. Experienced men often enlisted from campaign to campaign and fought for leaders, nations, and causes other than their own (i.e., a Scotsman in 1415 was not Henry Vs subject). As such, the accents symbolize the extent to which Henry’s character is able to unify a disparate group of people from the different parts of the British Isles and to incentivize them in his cause. This is part of Shakespeare’s method to present and encourage a sense of a united “British” (characterized as predominantly English) identity.
Shakespeare creates four Captain characters who are emblematic of the four parts of the British Isles. Dialogue is written in such a way as to emphasize regional accents. Captain Fluellen, for example, is Welsh and in his dialogue the initial letter B is frequently replaced with the letter P, in an attempt to represent (and perhaps caricature) the English idea of the Welsh accent. Captains Jamy and MacMorris are from Scotland and Ireland, respectively, and the spelling of their dialogue is also a means for Shakespeare to emphasize that the actors should use (exaggerated) Scottish and Irish accents (plays at the time did not use style stage directions). These exaggerated accents are likely to have been intended for comic effect for a London audience (especially in the extended case of Fluellen), but also have a serious purpose: to emphasize that Henry has drawn English, Welsh, Scottish, and Irish people to his cause and leads them all as “brothers.” Although the presentation of these accents may seem tone-deaf to modern sensibilities, Shakespeare engages directly with the identity, accents, and prejudice. When Pistol mocks Fluellen’s accent and his national traditions (celebrating St. David’s Day), he is made to eat his words in a symbolic fashion. Fluellen forces Pistol to eat the leek worn in his hat (the national symbol of Wales), symbolically defeating Pistol’s discrimination. Gower explicitly says that Pistol has underestimated Fluellen because of his accent. The accents of the characters symbolize the diversity of Henry’s army, while the play’s treatment of regional accents functions as a rebuke of discrimination.
Henry is also shown as leader of—and interacting personally with—characters from across the social scale. Characters such as Bardolph and Nym speak a style of English that characterizes them as common people (also vulgar, drunken and violent), which contrasts markedly with the educated mode of speech used by Henry and the other English nobles. As such, the use of different accents in the play illustrates the diversity of the people who form Henry’s army. Henry is represented as the king of all his people, humble enough to recognize and interact with the common and man and who is loved in return. Theatre in Shakespeare’s day was popular entertainment; most of those who attended were ordinary, poor people and these themes are likely to have played well to the crowd.
This also extends to the portrayal of Katherine in the play, who speaks either fluent French or broken English in a French accent. Shakespeare writes Katherine’s accent as distinctly French when she speaks English (and she laughs at Henry’s accent when he speaks French). Her conversation with Henry symbolizes the divide between their two nations but also the way in which he is able to overcome barriers between people and foster connections through his charisma. Their conversation is an extended metaphor for the narrative of war and peace, played out in the language of love.
Tennis Balls
Tennis balls, also called “Paris balls” are a symbol for the personal feud between Henry V and the Dauphin, and, as a competitive game, a metaphor for the war between the English and the French. The symbol of the tennis balls in introduced at the beginning of the play, when the Dauphin sends a message to King Henry. The tennis balls are a deliberate provocation on the behalf of the Dauphin. Tennis (jeu de paume) was first invented as a hand game by the French in the 13th century, developing into a racquet game (real tennis) by the early 14th century. The game was a fashionable elite pursuit for young noblemen across medieval and Renaissance Europe: Tournaments were played indoors, requiring a large, dedicated space and a great deal of leisure time. Through the centuries, tennis became linked with the chivalric tournament and these competitive games were an established metaphor for warfare by Shakespeare’s time. The French origins of the game are important to the significance of the tennis balls as a symbol in the play, as the Dauphin chooses a game of French cultural pride that the English have adopted, implying French predominance.
In sending the tennis balls, the Dauphin makes clear that he still believes Henry to be reckless and impulsive, and intimates that he is more interested in sports and games than in statecraft or politics, an allusion. They imply that Henry should only play at indoor leisure games and leave the serious, manly matters of real war to other people (such as the Dauphin himself). The tennis balls being sent in or as a “tun” is another allusion to Henry’s misspent youth, as a “tun” is a barrel or measure commonly used for wine or ale.
The tennis balls symbolize the extent to which everyone in France underestimates King Henry and are an indication of the lack of judgment that the Dauphin displays. The tennis balls have a deeply ironic symbolism: The Dauphin accuses Henry of being the immature and unwise youth but in doing so he makes a childish joke and reveals his own lack of judgment. The Dauphin is more concerned with mocking his rival than taking any potential threat seriously and the gift symbolizes his refusal to enter into an appropriate diplomatic relationship with Henry, based on their equality as fellow royals—in fact, King Henry is senior to the Dauphin as a Prince, regardless of age, and should be treated by him with deference. In calling the balls “treasure” and sending them as part of a message masquerading as a request for peace, the Dauphin deliberately subverts the diplomatic and courtly conventions of “suing for peace,” including the ritualized exchange of gifts and formal compliments. Courtesy and diplomacy were essential kingly characteristics, both in medieval Europe and in Shakespeare’s time. The tennis balls show that the Dauphin, rather than Henry, is the reckless and immature character. In showing a lack of courtesy and respect, even in times of political and military conflict, the Dauphin shows himself to be an unfit leader, juxtaposed by Henry’s eloquent responses and King Charles’s wiser approach. By provoking Henry with a personal insult of the sort that a man could not ignore with honor, the Dauphin jeopardizes his country’s security, emphasizing that he is too insolent and self-important to be a good or wise leader for his people. The play suggests that he is personally responsible for Henry’s “vengeance.”
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By William Shakespeare
