King Henry IV –part 1

How does the composer represent their ideas?

Representation
Deliberate acts of selection, emphasis and omission/ omitted

Deliberately done this to draw conclusions
Persuasive / manipulation
Father son relationships – Hal is a disappointment to his father
Selection- changes the facts of the history to add to the drama of the play

Representation of power and politics

Conscious issues
Elizabethan audiences – notion that the king was audained by god
A sin against god
Power relationships – father son – hotspur betrays henry 1V
Power struggle – relationships are defined by manipulation and deception
Machiavellian approach to leadership – inform henrys rule
Largely informed by values of a Christian society
Corruption of catholic church – Christian values were entrenched in Elizabethan society – conclusions he draws are morals and Christian morality
Composed in the transition between medieval and resonance thinking
Era characterised by the supernatural, instinctive – renaissance – man began questioning, not rejecting god, empowering man to make his own decisions

Collisions between self determination and values
Usurper- god will punish him
Determine his own path
Mans decision making – beginning the era and finds it way into Shakespeare’s play
RELATED TEXTS
Political speeches
Role of fate
Deposing a rightful king
Usurper
Means his fate will be trouble
Upset the king

False staff and Henry

comic relief

Machiavelli
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Henry’s a redeemable character who is guilty, but wants to make it good/ right. Tied up with the Christian concept of forgiveness.
Suggests that Richards reign was problematic
Mudding the characters
Percy and Mortimer and the true characters

Nature of power

instilling fear importance of the political and private issues to over whelm power

Nature of rebellion

what characterises their behaviour

medieval and resonance period of change

Whoever won the battle had god on his side
Fulfilling their fate and how much power they have to chart their own course
Success on the battle field

Divine right relevant to Shakespeare’s composition – important
Whereas…
Henry understands he is under threat
Fuelled by the knowledge that his son is going to take over the thrown, he wants to leave him a legitimate power
The quest for legitimate power is done through the crusade to the holy land
Ruined by the rebellion
His chances of leaving a legit thrown to his son is informed by the fact that his son is rebellious and philandering
Suggestion he is old, frail and not in good health
Sense of worry, weighed down by guilt
Riddled by guilt, he proves himself as a man, politically quite shrewd
Through that, it explores the collision between the political and personal
Personally he has to prove himself
Weakness politically, however, quite decisive, and arrogance, ruthlessness personally
Act 3 scene 2 – he describes the distinction of his rule to King Richard
“Ne’er seen but wondered at”- talking about the eluphent nature of his monarchy (machaveialian
Providence context – transition Emerging human creation – henry is testament to that