Henry Vth

0Examine the development of ideas and language in Henry Vs Agincourt speech

This speech of Agincourt is a speech that King Henry V delivers before the historic battle of Agincourt. Henry is trying to rally his forces and motivate his soldiers. Henry’s forces are few with little weapons and equipments. Whereas in contrast to this the French forces are well equipped with a great number of soldiers. The English soldiers are feeling nervous and Henry seeks to encourage them and ‘conjure up the blood’. On the French side there is a lot of self-confidence, optimism and boasting. Henry expresses his passion and love for England and talks about honour, bravery and valour in fiery oratory. Henry has already prayed to the Almighty God before the battle and is hoping for the best if God is on his side, which he believes. Henry has already emerged victorious at Harfleur and is hoping for a similar victory.

Henry starts off his speech with talk of death, patriotism and honour. Henry begins off with these three factors as they play a vital part in battle. Henry seems to have a very carefree attitude towards death. He says ‘If we are marked to die we are enow’. This will bring about some courage in the soldiers and take away the feeling ner

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Henry also talks about patriotism as he says ‘to do our country loss’. He is trying to make the English want to go to battle eagerly and he does this by saying that the one who does not want to fight, let him depart he will be given a purse of money for travel. He is trying to show the people that he is not attacking France for wealth but for regaining his honour. He does this by preferring honour to gold and therefore showing the people that he’d rather go into battle and honour himself and his country rather than greed for gold. Shakespeare changes the numbers of the English casualties by a considerable amount, by stating that only 25 English died. As Henry is saying it is honourable to fight for your country, England, the soldiers would be motivated and want to fight. He also goes on further by saying that he does not want to die in the company of man who doesn’t want to die with him. Crispian as he was a religious saint.

This section connects us to the previous one as Henry tells the soldiers to fight for honour and not to lose such a great honour fighting for your country. This is essential as Henry is a king and they are mostly peasants. Henry then goes on to talk about honour. Crispian’s day’ He also says that on that day the soldier will strip his sleeve and show him the wounds and say ‘These wounds I had on St. A small ‘happy band of brothers’ defeated a mighty army in the Battle of Agincourt, which is recorded in history as one of the greatest battles fought by Henry V.

Approximate Word count = 1146
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

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