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Henry IV Part 1

1 You’ll need to know the history of the War of the Roses to understand the plays. Check out this site: http://www.warsoftheroses.com/ Also, google the major characters. Unfortunately, Falstaff and the rest of the party boys aren’t historical characters, but most of the others are.

2. We can’t reduce the play to one “about” family, but family dynamics are important here, especially between father-son. Write about them. Besides capturing the obvious ones between the two “Harrys” and their respective fathers, pay attention whenever you find father-son imagery.

Prince Hal did not seem to take his father seriously until the end. He was out playing games with Falstaff and his crew, and did not take the prospect of war to be a reality. It is not until later that he says, “ So please Your Majesty, I would I could quit all offenses with as clear excuse as well as I am doubtless I can purge myself of many I am charged withal. Yet such extenuation let me bed as, in reproof of many tales devised, which oft the ear of greatness needs must hear by smiling pickthanks and base newsmongers, I many, for some things true, wherein my youth hath faulty wandered and irregular, find pardon on my true submission.” (3.2.20-28). Only then did he realize his duty and responsibility to his father in the ensuing battle. He did fight for his father in the end, and he won his father’s approval.

I did not get a good sense of the relationship between Hotspur and Harry Percy. Hotspur did go to war for his father, so I am assuming he is loyal to him.

3. This is a fairly early example of what will come to be called a “buildings roman”—a study of a character transitioning to the adult world. Do you find Prince Hal’s coming of age convincing? Why or why not?

I found Prince Hal’s coming of age convincing. Here he was, messing around with his buddies, then he finds out he has to go...