Qualities and Weaknesses of Shakespeare's Henry V as a King

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Qualities and Weaknesses of Shakespeare's Henry V as a King In Shakespeare's day, historical fact had already merged with legend to create the picture of an almost perfect King but the character of Henry V is not a simple one as it has many aspects. By looking into the King's manners in his speeches, strengths and weaknesses and behaviour throughout the play I will try to analyse how King Henry's character progresses and changes to show why I believe Shakespeare represented the character in this way. An insight into Henrys character is shown in Act One Scene One when he became King as the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Ely are speaking of Henry. The Archbishop of Canterbury exclaims, "The King is full of grace and fine regard." To which Ely replies "And a true lover of the Holy Church." These both are qualities expected of a noble and honourable king that shows Henry himself is honourable. However Canterbury tells us this was not always so, "The breath no sooner left his fathers body, But the wilderness, mortified in him, Seemed to die too." These lines tell the reader how the King left his frivolous youth behind him and accepted responsibility of being a King when his father died therefore becoming a king committed to his people, country and duty with his willingness to give up a life of constant fun. In Act Three Scene One Henrys speech is world famous as well as showing a lot about Henry character and how he feels about becoming King of England. "Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more;" the two words "dear friends" tells the reader that Henry considers himself as an equal to his soldiers and also shows how his use of language for encouraging his men. Churchill has also used such speeches for this as he has recognised this as a famous speech in his efforts in the 2nd World War as he knew this speech would have made Henry popular as in his speeches he mentions many aspects of life from

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