49 pages • 1 hour read
William ShakespeareHenry IV, Part 1
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1597A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
A Calculating Prodigal Son
The biblical parable of the prodigal son serves as a model for understanding Hal’s character, albeit with some key differences. The parable, from Luke 15:11-32, describes a son who asks his father for his inheritance only to squander it through wild living. He returns to his father begging for forgiveness. The father gladly accepts him back into his home and even celebrates his return with a feast, much to the consternation of a more responsible brother who did not waste his inheritance. When Hal is introduced, he frequents taverns, wastes money, overextends his credit, and associates with unsavory characters like Falstaff, Poins, and Bardolph. However, unlike the biblical prodigal son, this behavior is apparently calculated. At the end of Act I, Scene 2, Hal explains:
So when this loose behavior I throw off
And pay the debt I never promisèd,
By how much better than my word I am,
By so much shall I falsify men’s hopes;
And, like bright metal on a sullen ground,
My reformation, glitt’ring o’er my fault,
Shall show more goodly and attract more eyes
Than that which hath no foil to set it off.
I’ll so offend to make offense a skill,
Redeeming time when men think least I will (1.2.215-24).
He will use his “reformation” to increase his standing at court. This revelation lends cynicism and dramatic irony to his interactions with Falstaff: The audience knows Hal is using Falstaff and their friendship is on borrowed time. Hal is calculating and political, almost Machiavellian. He is willing to manipulate his way to the top.
Hal’s plan is accelerated by the imminent civil war, which provides the opportunity to redeem himself. When the king summons him back to court, Hal does the most honorable thing possible: He stakes his life on a duel with Hotspur to secure the king on the throne. He takes the honor of the king and kingdom upon his shoulders, proving he is willing to risk his life to save his father’s dynasty. After Hal saves his father from Douglas at the Battle of Shrewsbury, the king thanks him, saying, “Thou hast redeemed thy lost opinion / And showed thou mak’st some tender of my life / In this fair rescue thou hast brought to me” (5.4.47-50). In other words, Hal redeemed himself by showing that he values the king’s life. Though they do not interact much in the final scene, Henry’s change in opinion about his son is evident when he allows Hal to decide Douglas’s fate and takes Hal to finish putting down the rebellion. Hal’s plan paid off: He restored his honor and rightful place at his father’s side.
The Qualities of a King
Hal’s character arc centers on learning the qualities of kingship. At the beginning of the play, Henry is concerned about Hal’s perceived failure to live up to his station. Although not yet the ruler, Hal is the heir apparent and should embody the qualities befitting a future king. Rather than fulfilling these expectations, Hal brings disgrace upon his family through his disorderly and riotous behavior. By contrast, Hotspur’s conduct reflects the dignity expected of a future king. This contrast affects Henry, who says that he lives “In envy that […] Lord Northumberland / Should be the father to so blest a son, / A son who is the theme of Honor’s tongue, / Amongst a grove the very straightest plant, / Who is sweet Fortune’s minion and her pride” (1.1.78-82). This comparison is the basis for Henry’s later attempt to shame Hal into reforming his behavior.
According to Henry, King Richard fell because he did not respect the gravity of his office. Richard “ambled up and down / With shallow jesters and rash bavin wits, / Soon kindled and soon burnt; carded his state, / Mingled his royalty with cap’ring fools, Had his great name profanèd with their scorns” (3.2.62-66). He adds that Richard “Enfeoffed himself to popularity, / That, being daily swallowed by men’s eyes, / They surfeited with honey and began / To loathe the taste of sweetness, whereof a little / More than a little is by much too much” (3.2.71-75). In other words, spending his time among commoners diminished the regal aura a king should project. Too much access to the king caused commoners to reject him, just as eating too much honey is eventually sickening. Henry doesn’t know that Hal’s time spent with Falstaff and the others is part of his strategy, a sign of shrewdness rather than wantonness. Hal believes that commencing his political career from a position of low regard will prove advantageous. His foresight proves accurate, as Henry neglects to consider the value of being loved by the commoners.
Two of the most important qualities Hal learns from his father are sound judgment and mercy. For example, the king offers the rebels an honorable way out of the conflict they hurtle toward. Blunt delivers the message to the rebel camp: “If that the King / Have any way your good deserts forgot, / Which he confesseth to be manifold, / He bids you name your griefs, and with all speed / You shall have your desires with interest / And pardon absolute for yourself and these / Herein misled by your suggestion” (4.3.51-57). Henry asks the rebels to state their grievances, and he will address them. Though the king’s good intentions are thwarted by Westmoreland, Hal learns an important lesson and demonstrates the same capacity for mercy when he spares Douglas’s life at the end of the play.
Falstaff’s Virtues: The Futility of Honor
While many themes in Henry IV, Part 1 focus on honor, courage, and valor, Falstaff represents a counterpoint. While Hal and Hotspur are ready to die to protect their personal honor and family name, Falstaff’s words and actions argue that one should value life over honor. Since being alive is a precondition for any other good, Falstaff puts self-preservation first.
When Hal teases Falstaff about his vices in Act II, Scene 4, Falstaff replies, “If sack and sugar / be a fault, God help the wicked. If to be old and / merry be a sin, then many an old host that I know is / damned” (2.4.487-90). This clever retort highlights his unconventional perspective on morality, reframing his vices as virtues. Honor is to be avoided because it is antithetical to life. In his most famous monologue, Falstaff analyzes honor through a series of absurd definitions:
Can honor set to a leg? No. Or an arm? No. Or take away the grief of a wound? No. Honor hath no skill in surgery, then? No. What is honor? A word. What is in that word “honor”? What is that “honor”? Air. A trim reckoning. Who hath it? He that died o’ Wednesday. Doth he feel it? No. Doth he hear it? No. ’Tis insensible, then? Yea, to the dead. But will it not live with the living? No. Why? Detraction will not suffer it. Therefore, I’ll none of it. Honor is a mere scutcheon. And so ends my catechism (5.1.132-42).
On this reasoning, honor is of no benefit to the living—it cannot set a broken bone, heal a wound, or perform surgery. And it is of no benefit to the dead because it is lost as soon as people change their opinions (“detraction”). He concludes, “Honor is a mere scutcheon,” a meaningless memorial.
After he feigns death to save his life, Falstaff puts his belief in the futility of honor into practice. When he sees Blunt’s corpse, he comments, “Sir Walter Blunt. There’s honor for you. Here’s no vanity” (5.3.34-35). In other words, Blunt acted honorably in defense of the king, and the result is self-evident. To Falstaff, “To die is / to be a counterfeit, for he is but the counterfeit of a / man who hath not the life of a man” (5.4.117-19). This quip echoes Douglas’s frustration when he kills Henry only to find it is Blunt wearing a disguise (“a counterfeit” of the king). Falstaff concludes his critique of honor with the famous line, “The better part of valor is discretion, in the / which better part I have saved my life” (5.4.122-23). Honor and valor are fine, if one lives long enough to enjoy them. Falstaff’s ideas about honor and duty provide a sharp contrast against the lofty ideals of kings and nobles surrounding him. Through Falstaff, Shakespeare lampoons the very basis of the Henriad itself. Falstaff’s humor is a tongue-in-cheek self-awareness of the futility of noble ideals.
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By William Shakespeare
