But Hotspur feels that the King has not been sufficiently grateful to Hotspur's family for helping him in the past. The King demands Hotspur's allegiance and help against the Welsh. King Henry regrets that his own eldest son, Henry (known as Hal) spends most of his time in the taverns of London with vagabonds and ne'er-do-wells. There is also fighting in the north between the Earl of Douglas and Harry Hotspur, the warlike son of one of Henry's former allies. His cousin, Edmund Mortimer, has been captured by Owen Glyndwr, a Welsh rebel. But his departure is prevented by news of disloyalty and civil unrest. To atone for Richard's death, Henry IV resolves to lead a crusade to Jerusalem. Angry, Hotspur gathers a rebellion, and Henry and Hal go. During his ascension, he was partially implicated in the murder of his cousin, Richard II, in prison. While his son Price Hal spends time in the taverns, King Henry IV argues with his former ally Hotspur. A number of early scenes show Prince Hal behaving in exactly the way the King. The Prince forgets his responsibilities as heir to the throne and consorts with low company in taverns. Henry's army wins the battle, while Hal redeems himself from his wild youth and kills Hotspur.įollowing the events of Shakespeare's play, Richard II, Henry Bolingbroke has succeeded to the throne of England as King Henry IV. At the beginning of the play, Henry IV laments the fact that his son, Prince Hal, leads a wild life. Angry, Hotspur gathers a rebellion, and Henry and Hal go to battle to stop him. While his son Price Hal spends time in the taverns, King Henry IV argues with his former ally Hotspur. TL DR: King Henry IV fights off a growing rebellion while his son drinks and robs people his son redeems himself. Holistically, Shakespeare creates textural integrity by having Hal “Fufill” the father’s expectations, being a new figure that can balance both the ruling and common-people’s lifestyles through imitation, breaking down the hirarchial barriers of Shakespeares contextual times.Prices, booking, opening times and more to help you get organised Hal’s acceptance to “imitate the son” exposes his evolving ability, like an actor, to perform a role rather than embody one, reinforcing the new modality of rulership based on a pre-modernist meritocracy. Hal’s ability to “know you all” and “drink with any tinkerer” reveals his new form of integrated rulership, one that listens to and is part of the people. The father’s burden is then transferred onto the “son”, Hal, who must fufil this new way of rulership. King Henry embodies this traditional modality, just as “like a comet I was wondered’d at”, King Henry uses celestial imagry to form a sense of superiror elitism in his ruling, by separating himself from the common people of England, he solidifies the strict hierarchy of the court, crown and common-people. Shakespeare reflects the centre of the problem being usurpation, a cyclical – power struggle for inheritable rulership, feudal systems and separation. The play’s opening is situated in tension, as the King is “shaken” by the “civil butchery” and “opposed eyes” that threaten the security of Englands nationhood. Shakespeare, through the characterisation of the doubling fails of King Henry and Prince Hal expresses the changing nature of power. Shifting power systems reveal the modality in which a specific time and people existual, as the tudor myth and evolving London grew in Plurality and Multicurluralism. The precise control and use of the language of concise, trade and debt is utilized continually to illuminate mercantile class and continual usurpation of power in Elizabethan time, resonating with the contextual audience’s uncertainty as to who would gain power after Queen Elizabeth’s approaching death. The shifting honour codes of Shakespeare’s time is realized through the characterisation and interplay of Aristililian balanced individuals, as Hal, Hotspur and Falstaff form an emergent form of honour, a pre-emptive humanist modality that their interaction across the play enlighten. Shakespeare explores the shifting nature of power, one going from an externalised elitism that separates itself from the people, to a integrated humanist internalisation of power centred on merit. Hal generates a new, emerging modality one built from doubling and character foils that solidify the meaning and universalising true nature of the humanist figure. In William Shakespeare’s historical drama, King Henry IV Part One (1598), the evolving nature of London’s time is explored through the renaissance humanist character of Hal. Through the precise and close examination of literature, we can gain a greater understanding of the use of history and composition to form a new meaning to an audience. Hal is a reflection of Shakespeare’s evolving London.Įvaluate this statement with direct reference to Shakespeare’s play, King Henry IV, Part I, and Hal’s relevance to the play as a unified whole.