Shakespeare Coursework Henry V Essays

Shakespeare Coursework Henry V Essays Shakespeare Coursework Henry V Essay Shakespeare Coursework Henry V Essay In Henry, how does Shakespeare avoid much disgrace with four or five most vile and ragged foils. Right ill disposed in brawl ridiculous in depicting the Battle of Agincourt on the Elizabethan stage. As the play commences, William Shakespeare has to depict a fight scene at the Battle of Agincourt. When one considers the time period it would have been rather difficult to perform these scenes. This is also due to the fact that Elizabethan stages did not have the use of advanced special effects and consequently they were very basic. The Elizabethan theatre used no real sets and only the most essential set pieces and props. Shakespeare had to find various ways to portray the story and he mainly focused on the acting rather than the props. As it was impossible for Shakespeare to create a real life battle scene, the Chorus apologises for this in the prologue, Oh, pardon: since a crooked figure may attest in little place a million, and let us, ciphers to this great account, on your imaginary forces work. In this essay, I will explain the difficulties that Shakespeare faced when he had to recreate the story of Henry V, ranging from having a small performing space, few props size and havi ng only a handful of actors. One way in which Shakespeare depicts the battle scene is to appeal to the audiences imagination. The Chorus urges the audience to think beyond what they saw on stage, now entertain conjecture of a time, and to envisage what it would be like if they themselves were involved in the scene. In addition, the Chorus also appeals to the audiences sense of sight and sound. Shakespeare has to rectify another issue. The performance took place in the afternoon, yet the battle scene was at night. To emphasise darkness once again Shakespeare uses the Chorus, the poring dark and chide the cripple tardy-gaited night. The language used stresses the point that the battle scene is set at night facilitating the audiences imagination. Additionally, Shakespeare uses personification such as, like a foul and ugly witch to describe the night. This adds to the drama of the play as the language makes the audience compare the night to a witch, which has negative connotations. This made is easier for the audien ce to understand certain aspects of the play such as the night. Finally, Shakespeare shows the distinct contrast between the French and the English armies. The English army was portrayed as being less than convinced of their chances of success due to inadequate size. This compares with the French army, whose contingents were courageous and arrogant in assuming that they were going to win the battle. This illustrates how Shakespeare makes the audience develop sympathy towards the English. In Act Four, Scene One, King Henry disguises himself as an ordinary soldier and converses with members of his army, asking them about their feelings towards the battle and their morale. This creates dramatic irony as the audience knows that the King is in disguise, however the characters do not. In particular, King Henrys old friend Pistol does not recognise him and he is confused with who this ordinary soldier is, art thou officer or art thou base, common and popular? This creates comedy or light relief and brings a more optimistic mood to the play, before the bleak battle. However, the mood of the scene is soon lowered when Henry meets three commonplace soldiers; Williams, Bates and Court. They speak of how they believe they are going to die, and how they feel as if they are insignificant to the King, Ay, he said so, to make us fight cheerfully, but when our throats are cut, he may be ransomed, and we neer the wiser. At this point, they did not know that the soldier they have met i s the King. This creates tension between the regular soldiers and the King; however it also creates sympathy towards the ordinary soldiers. Finally, in the closing stages of the scene, King Henry is desperately praying to God for victory over France. Throughout the play, Shakespeare continues to portray the French army as being overconfident, superior and complacent, therefore showing favouritism towards the English. This contrasts with King Henry doubts in the previous scene, as the audience believe that the French are too boastful and will not succeed. An example of how the French as seen as overconfident is, And your fair show shall suck away their souls, leaving them but the shells and husks of men. In contrast to the end of Act 4, Scene 1, Henry later becomes more confident in his weapons and his men. He does not want any more troops to join the army to fight, as he believes victory will be greater for we happy few we band of brothers. He conducts two main speeches in Act 4, Scene 3, both saying how much faith he has in his army and how he and his troops will work as one to win the battle. In addition, the speeches boosted the troops morale, making them more confident in their ability. Furthermore, both of these speeches build up suspense for the Battle of Agincourt itself. The actual Battle of Agincourt is not depicted as a very serious event but as a comic anticlimax. Shakespeare chose to portray the battle in this way because he realised that it would be impossible for him to re-enact the scene with the few actors and the limited props he had. Also in this scene, the audience discover how Pistols mercenary motives contrast completely with King Henrys idealistic motives. Pistol discovers that he can sell the French weapons in order to make a profit and this is purely for his own benefit. However, King Henry does not only want to fight for his personal pride but he wants to fight for his country. In addition, he believes that his purpose in life is to win, because God encouraged him to do so. We soon learn that England won the Battle of Agincourt, even though they were outnumbered at a ratio of 5:1. Shakespeare writes about how the French Nobles reactions differ highly from their attitude in Scene 2. They experienced hubris as they were originally overconfident and then they fell down at the last hurdle because they lost the battle. This was humiliating for the French as they had lost, thousands of soldiers were killed and they had lost their sense of superiority. In conclusion, I believe that Shakespeares use of language and various techniques made the play successful. He realised that he could not portray the fight scene realistically and therefore decided to show it in a comical way. He uses the Chorus to communicate with the audience, often telling them to use their imaginations, which made each member of the audience feel more involved in the play. In this time period, special effects were not available because the technology had not been invented and therefore Shakespeare depicted the play well.