Rebellion is . . . Good?

I admittedly don't really have any original places that I've thought to submit my paper to. The first one that came to mind was Criterion, as a flyer for it was passed around during my class on the American novel. I would have to add another page or so to get the bare minimum of 3,000 words in there though.

I dabbled around in literary journals for other universities, but ones like Clemson required 6,000 words, much weightier paperwork than what I have. Based on a class member mentioning The Shakespeare Festival's (in Cedar City, Utah) call for papers, I was a little excited to look into that one. The due date for this year is past (May 1) , but maybe I can look into it again come April or so of 2013. I would have to make a 250 word abstract. There wasn't any other information on length though on the website.

I had a lot of good feedback concerning my thesis. I had done something not uncommon for me in not making my thesis the most self-evident. Everybody that skimmed and/or read my paper told me to make it more clear, so I did that. Of course, there were a few other revisions here and there. Okay, I'm done rambling now. Here's the paper.

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.

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?