Henry V
(William Shakespeare)

The Private & Public Life of a Monarch

After King Henry talks with his soldiers about the nature of a King's responsibility for the way his men die, he is amazed to hear that they hold him responsible for everything. He is sorry that he cannot live like a common man does: to work hard during the day and rest easily during the night without worrying too much about the things he has to do for the country. He wonders how much of life he is missing out on, but then resolves to pull himself together as his country and army are relying on him. It is the one moment of weakness that Henry reveals, which he does in the privacy of a disguise and the shadows of night. This suggests that a King can only be his true and personal self in privacy, but this privacy is almost always a stolen one and does not last long.

The Chest of Tennis Balls

The Dauphin knows exactly which buttons to press when dealing with King Henry. He sends the tennis balls to represent Henry's colourful and wild past where he was a fairly careless young man and to suggest that he is not a responsible ruler. However, the tennis balls serve as a motivating symbol for Henry, who immediately decides to take his claims to the French throne to heart and invade. The tennis balls, he announces, will become cannon balls and dismantle France. The Dauphin's own scorn for Henry shall be France's downfall, and only the Dauphin and the King will be to blame for his malice.

Male Friendship

Henry is one of the only men in this play to not have a solid friendship. Although he has his family and noblemen around him most of the time, they do not talk about personal matters but plans for the future of England. Even the thieves and cowards have friends: Pistol returns to stand up for Bardolph and ask for someone to pardon him for his thievery. Henry's lack of friendship exacerbates and highlights the differences between a King's isolation and the people below him.

Ransoms and Contracts

While a great number of deals are made and resolved on the battlefield, some are resolved with the use of contractual agreements. Henry's one main demand is the hand of Katherine, the French King's daughter, to ensure peace between the two countries. Pistol agrees to let the French Soldier go free if he gives Pistol a large sum of money, and many characters challenge one another to future fights and disagreements.

Mercy

King Henry believes in mercy. He is merciful to the people of Harfleur when they surrender to him, and orders that no harm will be done to the people. Even though when he hears that Bardolph has been caught stealing something from a Church he orders that the army be told if they are caught doing the same that they too will be hung, he adds that none of the French people should be abused or heckled in any way. This suggests that this rule is to protect both sides of the war from one another. This merciful behaviour continues right through into the battle, where French soldiers are taken prisoner rather than being executed on the spot. Henry gives his reasoning: that a gentle King will win in the end because it is the truest way to behave towards another person. Although Henry resorts to killing all the French prisoners after their unarmed servants are slain, no one can certainly blame him for this change.

Body vs. the Soul

Blood soaked fields are a reference Shakespeare makes often throughout Henry V. There are also multiple references to the bones of the dead, especially when Henry refers to his own body being used as payment for the battle, and the bodies of the dead soldiers lying in French fields or English graves. He tells the French herald that these bones will be useless to the French if they manage to collect them as his soul will already have moved on. The men care little about what happens to their bodies, although death does frighten them, because it is the afterlife that they look forward to and place the most importance on. There are frequent discussions and references to repentance and performing last rites for bodies so that the souls belonging to them can pass on to Heaven easily.

Ruthlessness

It can be argued that sometimes Henry's attitude and tenacious need to rule over France blinds him to the way that he acts. He sends away his friend, Falstaff, because he mocked the King, and he puts his friends to death when their plot to kill him is revealed. Henry has them killed to uphold the law and to prevent anyone else from believing that this behaviour is acceptable. However, Henry's treatment of Bardolph, who he has killed for stealing from the people they are attacking, is strange. He subsequently orders that anyone else found stealing or treating the French badly are also to be put to death. This does not match his earlier argument that the punishment should fit the crime, and complicates our understanding of Henry as a hero. That he is willing to threaten—in the case of Harfleur—or commit considerable violence suggests that he is willing to do anything to achieve the goal he desires.

The Absence of Women at War

Queen Isabella is practically invisible until the end of the play when peace is restored, and she is there only to wish Henry and her daughter Katherine well in marriage. Katherine and Alice are treated as humorous characters and are a break from the war-mongering going on between the English and French. These women are one dimensional and are made to be laughed at. Alice, who has been to England and supposedly knows the English language, cannot even teach her mistress how to speak it properly, and it is Henry who shows both of them up later on when he reveals he is even better at speaking French than they are speaking English. That these women are kept at the royal court also suggests that they are weak and unable to fend for themselves. That they are also seen as stupid is just another dagger in the treatment and presence of female characters in this play.

Representations of Cultural Traits

The Chorus asks the audience to imagine each man represents a thousand, and in a way this is exactly what Shakespeare has done. Many of the characters represent geographical and sociological locations: MacMorris represents the Irish, Fluellen represents the Welsh, Pistol represents the lower classes, Jamy represents the Scottish. These characters often have traits associated with their background: for example, Fluellen is a man who likes to speak a lot, which is a trait associated with the Welsh people.

Love

Henry suddenly declares that he is in love with Katherine at the end of the play, despite the fact that he has not mentioned this at all to anyone before. He even rejected Katherine's hand as part of a ransom the French offer him to leave France alone. It is curious, then, that this is something Henry demands from the French when they draw up their peace treaty. He declares his love to her, but explains he cannot show his love through song, or dance, or poetry. He can only tell her as a matter of facts. Considering that this is part of his demands, it is also curious that he asks Katherine for her agreement. The contract is as good as signed by her own father, but Henry seems to need to pretend that they are in love for him to feel better about all of this.

Katherine is, understandably, confused. Henry is her enemy, not her love, and she cannot return his declaration. While Henry appears in a better light because he is more positive about his feelings, Katherine seems much more honest than he does. Henry could be pretending to be in love with her merely to get her on his side. He even suggests to her cousin, Burgundy, that he should assist in blinding Katherine's feelings so that she gives herself over to him willingly and without much awareness on her part. Although Katherine and Isabella agree to the marriage, there is a sense of tension in this agreement that suggests neither woman wants this man to marry her, but there is little either can do about it, and little to do with love.