Shakespeare’s Henry IV
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In part, 1 of Shakespeare’s Henry IV, various characters perceive honor differently. Accordingly, the course of action each character takes differs from that of the others because all characters want to gain honor and their actions determine whether a character is honored or not. In the play, Prince Hal, Hotspur, and Falstaff hold different perceptions of honor. To Hotspur, honor has to do with a feeling of responsibility and duty towards one’s seniors. According to Prince Hal, honor has close relationship with behavioral vices.
Hal is seen striving to redeem himself from a tainted image brought about by his reckless behavior, including stealing other people’s property. He believes he will get the honor once he has corrected his behavior and apologized to his father, who is a king. Unlike the two previous characters, Falstaff’s conception of honor is entirely different. While Prince Hal and Hotspur acknowledge the honor as an admirable and important thing, Falstaff associates the word honor with the dead; he does not find the concept applicable to the living. Throughout this play, various characters exhibit different perceptions of honor. This paper compares and contrasts how each of the three characters perceive honor. In addition, an attempt has been made to identify the views that are practical and modern versus cynical and medieval.
Henry IV, the king, believes Hotspur is the ideal representation of honor. Henry IV says Hotspur possesses the theme of the tongue of honor (Shakespeare and Johnson 73). In a description of how Archibald faced defeat under Hotspur, the king explains how courageous and able Hotspur is. Importantly, the king will never forget Hotspur overthrew the preceding king, allowing him to assume power on a friendly basis. Hotspur is known to spend most of his time around the king, doing whatever the latter requests. This is in sharp contrast to the king’s biological son, Hal, who spends all his time in a nearby tavern. He has never spent any considerable time with his own father.
King Henry IV believes Hotspur’s father, Northumberland is extremely lucky to have born such an admirable son. Though the king honors Hotspur so much, the latter thinks differently. He is of the opinion the king does not bestow him sufficient honor, given he was the one who facilitated his ascent to power. Hotspur develops the thought that overthrowing Henry IV is an honor. He feels acting against a person who blocks one from being honored is an act of honor in itself. From that time, Hotspur only focuses his energies in planning on the ways of overthrowing the king.
He consults his father and Worcester, who seem to have an array of practical techniques that would oust Henry IV in hours. However, when all plans are in place, a major ideological difference arises between him and Worcester. This causes Worcester to withdraw his support. A few days later, the father also withdraws, but the circumstances under which his withdrawal occurs are not clear. The timing of the withdrawals is critical, and Hotspur has to think fast lest he loses the battle. Rather than mourn the withdrawals, he chooses to take them positively. According to the thoughts that came upon him at the final hour, it is honorable to go to war alone and lose, rather than obtain help and win. Furthermore, he will gain more honor if he dies in the battle than if he wins. The determination to oust King Henry IV is so great such that he considers it plucking a brightly colored honor from a pale-colored moon (Shakespeare 14).
As Hotspur converses with Glendower Owen, the audience cannot help but see the level of ridicule Hotspur has for him. Though Glendower thinks very highly of himself, Hotspur sees this as exaggeration. When Glendower’s pride becomes too much, Hotspur tells him off. Hotspurs perception of honor revolves around revenging against King Henry IV in order that he regains the honor, whose loss the king had contributed significantly. Apparently, Hotspur bases acquisition of honor on battling the person responsible for taking away that honor.
Whereas to the king Hotspur are an ideal representation of honor, his son, Prince Hal has no place in the heart of the king. According to Henry IV, the son spends his time away from him and does little to care about the father. Notably, this prince has been accused of stealing several times from a nearby tavern. The king considers him dishonorable given that he is a prince but still behaves in a way the king’s subjects refers to as dishonorable. In fact, the king believes he bore Hotspur not Hal; the two might have been exchanged at birth since they were conceived around the same time. Hal knows that a person of honor should not behave the way he does.
Hal too, like his father, hates this behavior. He is willing to change and return all that he has stolen from the tavern. In addition, he knows how the king honors Hotspur, and lately he has learnt the latter is planning to oust his father. He approaches his father, talks to him of his intentions to change his behavior, but the father is quite skeptical. When he discloses that Hotspur is planning to overthrow him, the king is worried. Hal assures of his support at the battlefield.
Hal perception of honor is peculiar. He is not able to do things associated with honor. Rather he wants to fight against Hotspur in order that he gets the honor Hotspur has been enjoying. He has gathered many forces in preparation for the battle with Hotspur. When the battle eventually starts, Hal fights so diligently that he emerges the victor. The king has no reservations other than to grant him honor (Modugno 80).
From the viewpoints of Hotspur and Hal, honor has to be strived. Nevertheless, Falstaff holds a perception of honor that steers him from it. Falstaff is a robber and misuse an office where he is a commissioner. He cannot be considered honorable. Prior to the start of the war, he illegally exempts some soldiers from the war by extorting bribes from them. Falstaff retorts ‘food for powder,’ showing his level of concern for the men going to war. He has never viewed fighting as an act of honor. Showing how low his opinion of honor is, he says honor cannot relieve a wound’s grief. The reason he would rather stay without honor is his belief one can only gain it in death.
Hotspur thinks honor can only come as a reward from a powerful person. In addition, one ought to have shown much loyalty to that individual and appease him or her constantly in order that the latter awards the honor in return. Falstaff, according to whom honor cannot be given, heavily criticizes this view. Falstaff has the view that only dead people crave for honor, and that such honor comes automatically. Therefore, whether one was honored when they were living or not does not matter. Every person will receive honor freely after he or she dies and thus it is not necessary to strain to acquire an honored status. This view is apparently archaic and has no place in the modern society. Even the king does not like Falstaff’s attitude towards honor, and neither does any of the other characters in the story.
Falstaff’s perception of honor is apparently both cynical and traditional, unlike that of Hal and Hotspur. It is not practical to become honorable when you are dead. Hal and Hotspur seem to be right; one has to struggle to become honored, and that is the modern view of honor.