Showing posts with label Prince Hal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Prince Hal. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Better late than never. Rebellion, anyone?


Due to the lack of interest on my original tweethis (I feel like it was too narrow/specific), I am taking a different route. I'm going to 'tweet-this' new idea in hopes that I can get interesting/useful feedback from people. This paper is far from done, but any and all feedback will be appreciated.

One of the great themes of Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1 is how Prince Hal transitions from the carefree and raucous tavern crowd to the more serious court life that he is to inherit. While the coming of age theme is very obvious, a focus on Hal's first half of this transition, rebellion, brings about an understanding of the general idea of human change and improvement. Why rebel? There are many reasons why people choose to dissent from authority. Rebellion in general is a sort of phase in life, sometimes playing a large role once or twice, and sometimes playing many small roles here and there. Looking at Prince Hal and then the rebels from this play, much can be learned about the benefits of rebellion for humankind and individuals.

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Halstaff

For my part in researching Shakespeare in ways that interest me, I have read Henry IV, Part 1 and looked at relationships between some of the major characters, most often Prince Henry (a.k.a. Hal) and Falstaff. Out of my original three ideas for a paper, I completely scrapped the first one because I felt it wasn't very original and wouldn't be interesting. As of right now, I'm thinking of maybe doing a mix of my context and critical engagement 'protopapers', but I admit I'm unfortunately running into a mild amount of trouble with settling on a thesis. Maybe I'm being too picky.

I do have good substance though! I have researched what has been said before about Prince Hal's tavern life, his life with Falstaff and company. I have also read some about the actual history of Prince Hal before his father deposed King Richard II. It turns out that Prince Hal was a bit of a ransom when Henry Bolingbroke (future Henry IV) was exiled by Richard II. This was to ensure that Bolingbroke would be on good behavior. Even more interesting was the account that Hal may have even seen Richard II as a godfather of sorts.

One chronicle gave an account of Henry (future prince Hal) when his father returned to England. Young Henry was told by his father he needed to leave the king to wait on his father instead. Henry was saddened to leave, this is supplemented by other records which suggest that he was very loyal to King Richard II. With these things in mind, I'm currently thinking I'm going to look at Henry's tavern/rebellion days with Falstaff and show that they were a way to somewhat passively disapprove of his father's usurpation of the crown.

Is Prince Hal thinking that he wishes Richard II was still around?