Henry V Study Guide

Discussion Questions

• What is the dramatic function of the Chorus?  Why do you think Shakespeare uses a Chorus in this play and not other plays?
• What kind of king is Henry?  Is he a compassionate and merciful Christian monarch, or a ruthless and cunning Machiavellian prince?  Is it possible for Harry to possess both characteristics? (See Gombrich's "duck-rabbit," and Rabkin, below.)
  
• This play is sometimes staged as a patriotic anthem of British statehood, and it is sometimes staged as an anti-heroic critique of war.  What is the play's attitude toward war?  How does the play depict warfare?
• Do we view Harry differently because he is no longer in the company of Falstaff?  Why was it necessary for Falstaff to die in this play?  What does Falstaff's voice contribute to the earlier plays that is no longer present in this play?
• Although Harry goes to great lengths to distance himself from Falstaff and his friends at the Boar's Head Tavern (see especially the end of 2 Henry IV on this point), has he also learned something from his Eastcheap friends that affects his political decisions?

E. H. Gombrich's "duck-rabbit"
(Art and Illusion, 1960)