Henry IV Part 1 Literary Elements

drama; history play

English

England and Wales, 1492

There is no singular narrator of the play, though it places focus on the character arc of Prince Hal.

anxious, raucous, comedic

The protagonists of the play are King Henry IV and Prince Hal. The antagonists in the play are Hotspur and the rest of the Percy rebels.

The central conflict of the play is that Hotspur and the rest of the Percy family have decided to rebel against the rule of King Henry IV that they helped secure when they deposed Richard II. A secondary conflict in the play is the familial one between King Henry and Prince Hal, who does not seem to take his future kingship seriously enough.

The climax of the play occurs during the Battle of Shrewsbury, when Prince Hal steps into his role as a leader and saves his father's life before triumphing over Hotspur in single combat.

When Hotspur misplaces the map before battle, it suggests his disorganized and irresponsible nature and foreshadows his eventual defeat at the hands of Prince Hal.

In many ways, the comedic character Sir John Falstaff ironically becomes a voice of reason in the play by speaking in understated quips. His commentary, though seemingly crude or inappropriate, often satirizes the concepts that other characters take so seriously. Namely, Falstaff suggests honestly that war is meaningless and causes nothing but destruction when he compares soldiers to "food" for gunpowder. By contrast, other characters like Hotspur perceive war as an opportunity to prove one's valor as a man.

The play makes frequent allusions to the historical events that preceded the action of 1 Henry IV, namely the successful effort to depose King Richard II and install King Henry IV as the monarch of England. Shakespeare's primary source text for the play was Raphael Holinshed's The Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, Volume 3.

Important imagery in the play includes celestial bodies, gardening/horticulture, bodily mutilation, and the supernatural.

The central paradox of the play is the Percy rebels' attempts to dethrone King Henry IV when they contributed to his ascent in deposing his predecessor, Richard II.

Hotspur and Prince Hal are often figured as parallel figures for one another, with Hotspur seemingly embodying the "honorable" station of prince and heir to the throne while Hal appears to his father as debauched and unserious. By the end of the play, however, Hal proves himself a worthy prince and begins his transformation into a successful king when he saves his father's life and defeats Hotspur on the battlefield.

In his speech to the audience in which he admits his debauched lifestyle is a strategic decision, Prince Hal says that he will "imitate the sun" (1.2). He goes on to personify the sun as a man who lets the "base clouds" diminish his strength, only to make himself more wonderful and celebrated when he finally reappears. Prince Hal uses this metaphor to suggest that the time he has spent among commoners will make his transformation into a noble king all the more impressive.

1 Henry IV is considered a unique history play in that it departs from the genre by incorporating a number of comedic and whimsical moments (usually through the character of Falstaff and his companionship with Hal). These moments are balanced against the severity of the approaching rebel forces to create a history play whose characters are remarkably "real" despite their distance from contemporary audiences. The play ultimately uses its levity as a means of satirizing or critiquing some of its more serious concerns.