King Henry's View Of War Extract
In this extract, King Henry unpacks the difficulties of kingship and its weight. Clearly perturbed by the coming of dawn and the impending war, the scene portrays him coming to terms with the responsibilities and tribulations associated with leading men to war. Curious if his weary and drained English camp share the same fears, Henry disguises in a cloak to conceal the connotations and status of a being king, and visits various soldiers to understand the general mood of his men. In one of his conversations, he meets 3 soldiers, one of them named ‘Bates’, who essentially blames the king for the distressing situation and the deaths and sins induced. In response, king Henry delivers a heavy and meaningful reflective speech on kingship, adamantly
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This can be seen through the use of anthropomorphism in the statement,“War is His [God’s] beadle, war is His vengeance, so that here men are punished for before-breach of the king’s laws in now the king’s quarrel.” The extract refers to war as God’s ‘beadle’, the officer of the church, who God uses to punish men who, by their own intention, choose to sin or disobey the ‘king’s law’. This effectively portrays their service in war as the king’s order, and their intention to commit sin, to be judged by God. Furthermore into the speech, Henry states, “Then, if they die unprovided, no more is the king guilty of their damnation than he was before guilty of those impieties for which they are now visited. Every subject’s duty is the king’s, but every subject’s soul is his own.” The purpose of the passage and the use of anthropomorphism is to summarise and elucidate the reasoning behind Henry’s perspective, stating that if they die ‘unprovided’, meaning without seeking reconciliation and penitence for their own wrongful intentions, then the soldiers have only themselves to blame for the acts they did not ask forgiveness for and as result, denied eternal life. Therefore, the responsibility may fall on the king for leading men into war and the discommodious situations it denotes, however he can not be held accountable for the soldier’s individual acts that may go against their own moral
This can be seen through the use of anthropomorphism in the statement,“War is His [God’s] beadle, war is His vengeance, so that here men are punished for before-breach of the king’s laws in now the king’s quarrel.” The extract refers to war as God’s ‘beadle’, the officer of the church, who God uses to punish men who, by their own intention, choose to sin or disobey the ‘king’s law’. This effectively portrays their service in war as the king’s order, and their intention to commit sin, to be judged by God. Furthermore into the speech, Henry states, “Then, if they die unprovided, no more is the king guilty of their damnation than he was before guilty of those impieties for which they are now visited. Every subject’s duty is the king’s, but every subject’s soul is his own.” The purpose of the passage and the use of anthropomorphism is to summarise and elucidate the reasoning behind Henry’s perspective, stating that if they die ‘unprovided’, meaning without seeking reconciliation and penitence for their own wrongful intentions, then the soldiers have only themselves to blame for the acts they did not ask forgiveness for and as result, denied eternal life. Therefore, the responsibility may fall on the king for leading men into war and the discommodious situations it denotes, however he can not be held accountable for the soldier’s individual acts that may go against their own moral