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 storyline.
             These two characters, the focus of this essay, are what I found most alive in the play. In my opinion, Hotspur is alive in the sense that he is a life-like character and Falstaff in the sense that he is full of life.
             Hotspur is life-like in the sense that he represents the typical English feudal warrior of his time. His views and his manner reflect that.
             First of all, he values his honor above his own life. In the final scene of the play, as he lies mortally wounded by Prince, he tells him that he "better brook[s] the loss of brittle life than those proud titles [he] hast won of [him]. They wound [his] thoughts worse than [the Prince's] sword [his] flesh (l....

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Henry IV Part 1. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 03:35, March 29, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/77941.html