Dates and Times: Tuesdays, Feb. 23rd – March 30th,
Maximum Enrollment: 20 | Course Fee: $20
Although a war play, Henry V contains little or no military
action, or discussion of politics and strategies. As Alexander
Leggatt once noted, Shakespeare is more interested in
the feelings and imaginations of his characters. Again and
again, the play performs a shift from the political to the personal,
whether indirectly in Henry’s interactions with the
other characters, especially in disguise when he can reveal
his truest and innermost feelings to the common soldiers,
feelings that he could never articulate in his role as king
or in isolated speeches and soliloquies where we learn the
personal toll of leadership. If the Chorus is successful, we
as audience will imagine among other topics, the emotions
triggered by proposed bills which affect wealth, the
contrasting views of international law and even of citizens
performing different tasks in cooperation toward a common
goal, when language reflects diversity of the population and
variance in cultural values and past history, views of the
commoners juxtaposed to the views of those of the court,
war as money making opportunity for some, language as a
weapon for others, and public versus personal perspective
on Katherine and Henry’s political marriage.
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