Henry IV Part 1

If there is one quality that distinguishes Shakespeare from all other playwrights it is his uncanny ability to breathe life into his characters. Most playwrights write plots before they write characters. The characters are then selected based on whether or not they suit the framework of the plot. They are confined by their narrow functions within the play. Shakespeare writes differently. He creates characters with a life of their own. Consequently, the plots of Shakespeare’s plays unfold naturally, as the result of the set of characters created being placed in situation dictated at the beginning of the play (plot twists notwithstanding).

Henry IV Part 1 has two distinct storylines that unfold in parallel until the final act, in which they converge. They are more-or-less dominated by the figures of Hotspur and Falstaff, respectively. Furious at the King’s refusal to pay for his brother-in-law Mortimer’s ransom, Hotspur raises a rebel army aimed at overthrowing the King whose sovereignty he has just helped establish. His scheming, and the King’s mounting of a counter-force drive the plot of the first storyline. Falstaff’s shenanigans at the Boar’s Head Tavern and various criminal activities form the substance of the second storyli

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Frustrated, he

tells her rashly that he doesn’t love her and that “this is no world to play with mammets and to tilt with lips. ] perfumed like a milliner [who] called [his soldiers] untaught knaves, unmannerly, to bring a slovenly unhandsome corse betwixt the wind and his nobility” (l.

A characteristic of this aliveness is Falstaff’s great wit, manifested in his easeful, masterly use of language and theatrical brilliance.

Hal judges Falstaff based on his moral value based on religion. In Act 2 scene 4, the Prince searches his pockets after he has fallen asleep hiding behind the arras. Falstaff affectionately urges him to prepare for the event (Falstaff recognizes the fact that the King will question him on his whereabouts and the moral fiber of the company he keeps).

These characteristics

It is Falstaff’s lust for the experience of joy at the expense of all other things that make him, not only alive, but a unique character in world literature (which raises the question: does Shakespeare actually invent these characters, or are they simply parts of him that he lends expression- the latter sure would explain the depth and fullness of his characters). For example, he has no qualms about collecting the pay of the men killed under his command at Shrewsbury. He argues that “it lends a luster and more great opinion, a larger dare to [their] great enterprise, than if the Earl (Northumberland) were here”(l. He describes the delegate as: “a certain lord, neat and trimly dressed, fresh as a bridegroom, [.

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