Prince Hal Is the Politician, While Hotspur Is the Man of Action.
"Prince Hal is the politician, while Hotspur is the man of action." To what extent do you agree with this interpretation of the play?
Shakespeare’s ‘Henry IV Part I’, presents the young Prince Henry as an ambivalent and enigmatic character who is politically cunning in his ability to read situations and respond accordingly. He is a man of the world through his association with his friend Falstaff, but by the end of the play he has also supplanted Hotspur as a soldier and a man of honour who can take astute action when it is called for. By contrast, Hotspur is very much the man of action, though Shakespeare suggests that action, when it is untempered by thought and political acumen, is a dangerous and deadly quality.
Initially Hotspur is held up as a superb soldier and a model of chivalry and honour in marked contrast with Hal’s idleness and frivolity. The contrast between the two Harrys begins in Act 1 with King Henry’s praise of Hotspur’s victories in battle. Hotspur is referred to as ‘gallant Hotspur’ and the King describes him as ‘fortunes minion and her pride’, comparing him unfavourably to his own Harry who is stained with ‘riot and dishonour’. The comparison is further taken up when our introduction to Hotspur, fresh from battle, is juxtaposed with our introduction to Hal, drinking and planning frivolous robberies in the Boar’s Head Tavern with his Eastcheap friends. Hotspur is clearly a man of action to a degree that he becomes almost a parody of someone who is obsessed by honour gained in chivalric fashion through great victories in battle . His exaggerated claim that he will ‘pluck up drowned honour by the locks’ so that he alone may wear her garland and reap the full honour, paints a picture of a young man who is overly concerned with honour to the extent that he cannot spare time for his wife or await the opportune moment for further victory through the rebellion.
The negative attribute of Hotpur, his impatience, is highlighted and
Shakespeare’s ‘Henry IV Part I’, presents the young Prince Henry as an ambivalent and enigmatic character who is politically cunning in his ability to read situations and respond accordingly. He is a man of the world through his association with his friend Falstaff, but by the end of the play he has also supplanted Hotspur as a soldier and a man of honour who can take astute action when it is called for. By contrast, Hotspur is very much the man of action, though Shakespeare suggests that action, when it is untempered by thought and political acumen, is a dangerous and deadly quality.
Initially Hotspur is held up as a superb soldier and a model of chivalry and honour in marked contrast with Hal’s idleness and frivolity. The contrast between the two Harrys begins in Act 1 with King Henry’s praise of Hotspur’s victories in battle. Hotspur is referred to as ‘gallant Hotspur’ and the King describes him as ‘fortunes minion and her pride’, comparing him unfavourably to his own Harry who is stained with ‘riot and dishonour’. The comparison is further taken up when our introduction to Hotspur, fresh from battle, is juxtaposed with our introduction to Hal, drinking and planning frivolous robberies in the Boar’s Head Tavern with his Eastcheap friends. Hotspur is clearly a man of action to a degree that he becomes almost a parody of someone who is obsessed by honour gained in chivalric fashion through great victories in battle . His exaggerated claim that he will ‘pluck up drowned honour by the locks’ so that he alone may wear her garland and reap the full honour, paints a picture of a young man who is overly concerned with honour to the extent that he cannot spare time for his wife or await the opportune moment for further victory through the rebellion.
The negative attribute of Hotpur, his impatience, is highlighted and