King Henry's Lack Of Sleep

Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot?” This effectively puts the audience into a panic of a future under the British, luring them more into Henry’s ideas of war. The audience, already hyped from their boosted sense of independence since the beginning of the speech, is now completely vulnerable to Henry’s words.

Henry is asking his audience if they would rather live a peaceful life of slavery or a life of freedom on their own terms. This rhetorical question is impactful because Henry”s audience is afraid of slavery, they don’t like the idea of being controlled by anyone. They know what the lives of their own slaves are like and they fear being put in that position. This makes the audience want to heed Henry's advice and go to war against Great Britain.

First, one should focus on the language and Henry's ethos. The soldiers are burdened with the thought of a

Just because you love someone does not mean that you are not a tyrant. In addition, too, this is the first time that King Henry V had deceived his people. King Henry V used to live an unvirtuous life while hanging out with robbers and non-chaste woman. But as soon as King Henry received the crown he was a different person and never seemed to think about his old life even when his friend is going to die Henry V does not do anything to stop it he just says “What men have you lost, Fluellen” followed by “…I think the Duke hath lost never a man, but one that is like to be executed for robbing a church…” (III.vi.88-95). Even when his friend is brought up in conversation King Henry V does not ask if there is anything his friend could do to be pardoned. King Henry V does not do things because he is a Machiavellian tyrant and desires to be feared rather than loved.

Effective- This quote is effective because Henry is connecting it back to slavery. He is trying to say that if the colonists don’t do anything to the force of the British, they will end of having life like prisoners who will lose all of their freedom. The is appealing to their emotion because Henry is trying to create fear in them so they would do something about this horrific thing.

The syntax at the beginning of the text makes use of several short exclamations, conveying his urgency. The sentence structure builds throughout the passage, with fairly complex structure at the end; this provides a natural build within the soliloquy. Additionally, there are several questions posed throughout the passage which reveal King Henry’s distress. The diction reveals a shift within King Henry. While referring to sleep as “gentle” (L. 2) and “Nature’s soft nurse” (L. 3) at the beginning of the text, he shifts to a more aggressive approach, calling it a “dull god” (L. 12) and “partial” (L. 23) later in the speech. Throughout the soliloquy are words such as “hush’d” (L. 8) and “lull’d” (L. 11) which create a feeling of

Henry is trying to communicate to his audience that the British will betray them in terms that his audience will relate to or understand, so he uses a situation that happens in a well-known piece of

He makes references like,”...listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts.” This is referring to the story of Odyssey. In this story, the sirens would lure sailors to their deaths. He used this allusion because he felt the British was luring the colonists into slavery. A biblical allusion that Henry refers to is Mark 8:18, Henry said,”...those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not…” In Mark 8:18 this same phrase is stated, just a little differently. It is said as follows, “Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember?”This allusion shows that the colonists do not understand what is going to happen if they do not act. One last allusion found in Henry’s speech is, “...different men often see the same subject in different lights…” He used the world light to show that his view is aligned with god’s purpose. These allusions helped relate his views to the bible and literary stories, which urged the crowd to comply with

As he describes in his soliloquy, King Henry is vexed by his inability to sleep, and this state bestows upon him feelings of confusion and frustration.

He uses a powerful metaphor to slavery throughout the speech, referring to their “chains”. This creates a feeling of distaste, as slaves were the lowest members of the unofficial social caste system of colonial times. The comparison to such an undesirable position creates a strongly negative emotional reaction in the reader. Beyond that, Henry uses strong diction to get the reader riled up. Words such as “treason” and “insidious” along with his listed account of the increasingly humiliating ways they have “prostrated themselves before the throne” stirs the reader to sympathy towards their suffering at the “tyrannical hands of the ministry”. He couples this with allusions, using two to describe the kind treatment that Britain had been giving them presently. He cites the “song of the siren” and betrayal “with a kiss”, alluding to Greek mythology and the Bible,

The author’s diction is a reliable asset to the understanding of King Henry’s emotions towards himself, who has Insomnia, and towards others who do not have such a disorder. At the beginning of the King’s soliloquy, he questions sleep in a personifying manner. “O gentle sleep! Nature’s soft nurse, how have I frightened thee,” makes it clear that King Henry feels himself is to blame for his lack of sleep and that sleep being a “Nurse” can cure him of his disorder. It also reflects his own frustration regarding the unresponsiveness of his sleep to come and claim him. As his soliloquy continues it becomes evident that he begins to feel indignation and a feeling of being wronged by sleep because others find it so easy to perform such action, while he struggles and gets nowhere. This can be backed up by the constant negative connotative words being used by the author when speaking of others who are able to sleep. For example, in line seven the author uses the word “uneasy” to describe the setting of a place where sleep is present for people, and in line thirteen, Shakespeare uses the word “loathsome’ as a nab at the beds that are hardly any good yet are still able to provoke sleep. The King’s desperation is also shown when the author evokes an entity with the utmost of negative connotation and

Shakespeare’s ‘King Henry IV Part I’ centres on a core theme of the conflict between order and disorder. Such conflict is brought to light by the use of many vehicles, including Hal’s inner conflict, the country’s political and social conflict, the conflict between the court world and the tavern world, and the conflicting moral values of characters from each of these worlds. This juxtaposition of certain values exists on many levels, and so is both a strikingly present and an underlying theme throughout the play. Through characterization Shakespeare explores moral conflict, and passage three is a prime example of Falstaff’s enduring moral disorder. By this stage in the play Hal has

Even though outnumbered, King Henry gets through to his troops with his encouraging words. They understand that at that moment they are and always will be equal. They are risking their lives while “the men in England safe in their beds.” If King Henry does not care for status, neither should his troops. King Henry even says he is not above them, “whoever sheds his blood with me today shall be my brother.” Even though they are not blood related, the King will consider these men his brothers, due to their bravery to risk their lives. I think that is one of the most important lines from the

He says ¨If we are mark´d to die, we are now, To do our country loss; and if to live, the fewer men, the greater share of honour.¨ King Henry is telling his men that no matter what they do, they must fight their hearts out regardless of the outcome. Bringing his men together to all feel like they are fighting for a common cause makes them feel equal in the sense that if they win, they win as brothers and if they lose, they know they all put everything that into the battle and this adds a sense of brotherhood to the English army. King Henry gets his men to forget the fact that some are in a lower class or not as fortunate as others, and gets them to band together to get them to fight for Britain.

Henry the Fifth has been noted as England’s best King throughout history. He was loved among the common people and nobles alike for his fairness, his effectiveness on the throne, his justness, and his ability to relate to people of all classes. The kings that reigned before him, especially his father King Henry IV and King John, provide a striking contrast to Hal’s attitude on the throne. Kings of the past had not experienced the life of the common people, and chose to lead their lives in the realm of the castle. As we witnessed in I Henry IV, Hal’s father even went as far to discuss this approach to ruling at length with Hal. Henry IV believed that a king was best admired and supplicated if he was kept