Shakespeare's Henry V: Politics and the Family
1990; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 7; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/3189210
ISSN1549-3377
Autores Tópico(s)Irish and British Studies
ResumoAlthough psychological criticism has opened up a great many of the implications of the family theme in Shakespeare's second tetralogy, especially in regard to Prince Hal's relationships with his father and with Falstaff, political criticism of the plays has largely ignored the theme. Though Robert Pierce has addressed the connection of the family to the state, his concentration on Hal's maturation leads him to overlook both family dynamics and political theory.' This neglect of the family by many political critics other than Pierce is especially puzzling since the use of the family in the tetralogy can shed light on that murky question of the nature of Henry V's kingship: the long argument between the King's admirers and his detractors seems as hot in the 1980s as it was in the 1940s, with C. G. Thayer, for example, speaking for the former group in 1983 as earnestly as Dover Wilson did in 1943, and with John Alvis as hot in his disagreement in 1981 as was Harold Goddard in 1951.2 Both 2 Henry IV and Henry V connect Henry V's kingship and the family repeatedly and insistently. The pattern is clear enough: Hal becomes king after a long and significant reconciliation with his father (4.5); immediately after Henry IV dies, Hal strongly and repeatedly announces himself to the world in familial terms (as to the Lord Chief Justice; as both brother and father to Lancaster, Clarence, and Gloucester; and as embodiment of his own father's spirit--all in 5.2); Henry V rejects his old anti-father but assumes some responsibility for him (5.5); Henry V pursues a familial, lineal claim on France, surrounded by his brothers, uncles, and cousin; Henry V repeatedly refers to familial relationships in his discourses, especially his most moving ones to his troops before Harfleur (3.1), to the leaders of Harfleur (3.3), and to his troops before Agincourt (4.3); and finally, as the tetralogy ends, Henry V establishes new family ties as he becomes the son of Charles VI and the husband of Katherine.3 Clearly Shakespeare fills Henry V's reign from its beginning in 2 Henry IV to its end in Henry V with various forms of fatherhood, brotherhood, and sonship. What do we make of it? One answer seems to be that all these relationships could involve mutuality, a recognition of the bond Cordelia speaks of, an understanding
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