Henry IV Is One of History\'s Great

Henry IV is one of history's great plays on war and the way in which war can inflict its torment on a nation and a family. For aside being a play about war, it is also play about human relationships. Henry IV, part one in many respects is a play which demonstrates the bonds and difficulty between fathers and sons and fellow soldiers. Within this meditation of these complex characters, each character still undergoes a complete and nuanced trajectory. For example, Prince Hal is one such character who has a definitive trajectory. One could easily argue that by the end of the play, Prince Hal has engaged in a full and true redemption.

Part of allowing a character to engage in any type of redemption means setting that character up to become bettered, to even become heroic: this generally means that they have to start from a low place in order to experience such improvement. In part one of Henry IV, Shakespeare goes to great lengths to establish that Hal is one who scoffs at authority. Prince Hal is one who, when he encounters thieves, he takes matters into his own hands, "the thieves are all scatter'd and possess'd with fear / So strongly that they dare not meet each other;/Each takes his fellow for an officer. Away, good Ned. Falstaff sweats to death,/And lards the lean earth as he walks along:/Were't not for laughing, I should pity him" (I.iii). The news of such events worries the king to the extent, as this is the prince who will eventually rule the kingdom as the king someday. Thus, Shakespeare is able to present a clear lawlessness inherent within Prince Hal. This gives the character nowhere to go really, but upwards and to improve, making him an ideal character for redemption.

Shakespeare does indeed make the degeneracy which pervades Prince Hal's character as one which is indeed very pervasive and nuanced. For instance, later on in the play, one encounters Prince Hal, completely drunk and making little sense in the Boar's-head Tavern in Act II. Prince Hal proclaims, "Sirrah, I am sworn brother to a leash of drawers; and can call them all by their christen names, as Tom, Dick, and Francis. They take it already upon their salvation, that though I be but the prince of Wales, yet I am king of courtesy; and tell me flatly I am no proud Jack, like Falstaff, but a Corinthian, a lad of mettle, a good boy, by the Lord, so they call me, and when I am king of England, I shall command all the good lads in Eastcheap. They call drinking deep, dyeing scarlet; and when you breathe in your watering, they cry 'hem!' And bid you play it off. To conclude, I am so good a proficient in one quarter of an hour, that I can drink with any tinker in his own language during my life" (II.iv). One of the most ideal parts of this speech is that one takes into context the fact that it is spoken by an individual who will eventually inherit the crown, the sheer degeneracy of the words is able to fully be understood. In many respects, these words are no different from something a local drunk might say; instead they are spoken by the man who will someday be king. In fact, as the speech reveals, Prince Hal discusses what he will do when he is king someday: though his plans don't amount to much. Shakespeare, by presenting Hal in this manner, aligns this character with the every-man and the every-man's inner degenerate. Prince Hal is thus presented as a simple, unstable and chaotic mess. This is indeed an ideal starting point for an eventual redemption.

Later on in the play, when Prince Hal gives his noted speech which explains that his previously poor character and actions were just another role in the play -- the audience doesn't have to believe him necessarily. Rather the audience has to determine if his subsequent actions will determine is this is in fact accurate or not. Thus, his behavior will determine if a reformation has taken place. And Prince Henry does promise that his behavior will in fact demonstrate this. Prince Henry compares his character to the sun, with the ability to break through foul clouds and mist (I.ii.29). Such an affirmation just appears to be arrogant, but he presses on, claiming: "So, when this loose behavior I throw off And pay the debt I never promised, By how much better than my word I am, By so much shall I falsify men's hopes; And like bright metal on a sullen ground, My reformation, glittering o'er my fault, Shall show more goodly and attract more eyes (I.ii). Thus, the prince guarantees essentially that redemption will occur, as he guarantees a change in behavior. At this point, the audience will fundamentally never know what is true: if the prince's behavior will change because he was in fact simply playing a character, and decides to throw off such degenerate behavior; or if he was simply a degenerate who evolves into a more heroic figure. It is not important to the audience to ever make that distinction. All an outsider needs to see evidence of is change in his behavior, and that change does in fact eventually occur.

At the end of the play, the actions commence to demonstrate that without a doubt, Prince Hal has achieved redemption. This is unquestionable, as the prince has proven his integrity and his capacity for heroism by saving his father on the battlefield from the antagonist Douglas and by annihilating Hotspur. These actions are so significant because they immediately close the rift that earlier exists between Prince Hal and his father at the start of the play -- a rift which existed solely because of Hal's contemptuous and truculent behavior. Furthermore, by acting as essentially a war hero, Prince Hal is able to squelch any possible doubt regarding his capacity to rule. The prince has distinguished himself as one who is heroic and who is has the inner bravery, honor and fortitude to rule the kingdom. As one might say, he has established himself as one who truly has the capacity to govern a collection of people after his father passes.