Honor in Prince Hal Essay -- Shakespeare Prince Hal Essays

Honor in Prince HalPrince Hals destiny is shaped for him by many forces his association with the goof-off Falstaff, the expectations of his father, magnate Henry IV, and the constant comparison between himself and Hotspur. All troika of these forces create in Hal a sense of detect that is an integral fare healthy of his education as the ideal king, and throughout the action of Henry IV, spark I, Hal is gaining a knowledge of honor that will shape him into the female monarch that he will become. However, it seems that Hal ultimately chooses one form on honor all over the other, although he must compare the honor of Falstaff and the conceptual honor of a chivalric hero before he comes to a final conclusion. The beginning(a) influence that Shakespeare illustrates over Prince Hal is that of Falstaff, a fat old man who seems to decease his life in seedy taverns accruing massive amounts of debt. From his devious scheme to snare unknowing travelers at the beginning of the s tory to his diatribe on what honor is not, it is clear that Falstaff has a very distinct notion of his birth personal honor, and he seems to be trying to project that same notion onto Hal however, as Hal becomes closer to his father, Falstaffs honor becomes less appealing. Falstaff treats Hal and King Henry IV to his own personal code of honor-or lack thereof Well, tis no matter detect pricks me on. Yea, but how if honour prick me off when I come on? How then? Can honour set to a leg? nary(prenominal) Or an arm? No. Or take away the melancholy of a wound? No. Honour hath no skill in surgery, then? No. What is honour? A word. What is in that word honour? What is that honour? Air. A trim reckoning. Who hath it? He that died oWednesday. Doth he feel it? No. Doth he run across it? No. Tis ins... ...cing his role as the Prince and defeating Hotspur when no one in the land believed he had the gumption or the courage to do so. Hals plea to the King to salve the long-grown woun ds of my intemperance and subsequent promise to die a speed of light thousand deaths ere break the smallest parcel of this vow are the final bit points in the story that lead to Prince Hal being educated as to what it doer to be an ideal and true King (3.2.155-159). However, there is still clock time for Hals perspectives and values to be shaped and re-shaped by his father, the ghost of Hotspur, and the excesses of Falstaff, as well as by characters who have not yet been introduced, and in graze to fully understand the transformation of Prince Hal, the reader must continue to King Henry IV, Part II and King Henry V to reckon if Hal truly becomes an effective and charismatic ruler of England.