Henry V Speech Analysis

The play Henry V has some compelling and persuasive moments such as the “St. Chrispin Day” speech. The speech occurs before the battle of Agincourt when Henry V is trying to manipulate the nobles to fight. He persuades the English noblemen with promises of glory and riches worth more than gold. He showers them with fantasies of being great warriors who would mount to be more than the nobles who took the gold like cowards. King Henry uses anaphora, phrasing and tricot to further engage the nobles, and questions the men’s integrity and loyalty to the cause of the battle. He convinces the men that they are capable of winning wether or not they are physically and mentally capable of said task.

Since the nobles had known that they were outnumbered,

When speaking to the men, King Henry used a lot of repetition in his phrases of certain words. In doing so, the repetition was used as a great device for persuasion. If there were any people who were thinking of abandoning the cause, some of their minds were changed because of how Henry would repeat key words. “We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.” Repeating the word “we” at the beginning of each clause emphasized the concept of togetherness. When being a part of something with a group, the emotions felt by the individual is further solidified by the group. Therefore, when calling the nobles a “band of brothers” and as “we” Henry manipulates the noble men’s emotions as to sway in favour of their situation and to stay and fight. “He which hath no stomach to this fight, let him depart; his passport shall be made.” The repetition of the pronouns him/his/he and the pronouns referring to a cowardice persona emphasizes the ideal of being courageous vs being a coward. Being a coward was considered one of the worst things to be. This persuades the nobles mentality to (during the era) to be men and to not coward in fear of death. Even in the real world, this mentality existed due to the history of the roman empire and the english defeating them. The glory of war was a very strong form of emotional unification. At the same time, it plays to the men’s stereotypical masculinity. All the repetition also ties into some other Shakespearean

Tricot is used very heavily in most of Shakespeare’s plays. The magic rule of three is present in not only plays like Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet and Midsummer’s Night dream, but also in this speech. “We few, we happy few, we band of brothers,” is a fantastic from of tricot. The repetition of the word “We” three times in sequence emphasizes the concept of banding together and fighting for their cause. If Henry were to simply say that the were all happy brothers, the men wouldn 't have had the same reaction. The emphasis is gone and it doesn 't play to the men’s pride or emotions. The word “we” not only emphasizes but also brings together. Therefore this is fantastic at persuading the mass of noblemen in their thinking of the outcome of the situation at hand. "He that outlives this day, and comes safe home…He that shall live this day, and see old age…For he to-day that sheds his blood with me.” We see again that the repetition of the word “he” is used for persuasion and emphasis. “He” having the negative connotation to the concept of being a coward has also been changed with Henry’s phrasing. Using all three of the devices mentioned this example is nearly perfect at playing to the men’s pride, emotions and memory of the event. Therefore persuading the nobles to stay and fight even though their odds are not in their