Shakespeare’s Henry VI

Shakespeare’s Henry VI

Henry VI is a series of plays that were created by Shakespeare. The plays make up three historical events during the lifetime of king henry VI of England. In the first part of Henry VI, part 1 from the three parts talks about the country of England and how it lost French territories and the political wars that resulted in Wars of the Roses. Generally, England’s political system was affected by the jealousy and selfishness. The second historical event Henry VI part 2 shows the way the King did not influence his enemies, thus giving them power over England. The third historical event Henry VI part 3 deals with the horrific events that happen out of the conflict that the King had with his subjects. The trilogy of Henry VI is one of the most engaging and the most inspiring plays of Shakespeare.  In Henry VI, part 2, and Henry VI part 3, Shakespeare includes a rather large number of diverse commoner groups. As a result, the following paper will discuss if Shakespeare had an overall view of commoners, or if he did provide different groups to make distinctions and create multiple viewpoints. The paper will also point out the commoners most effective in influencing the plot(s), assuming they have any real power at all.

Notably, Shakespeare had an overall view of the commoners. Throughout the play of Henry VI, Shakespeare had plaid a significant role of the commoners, especially in the plays Henry VI part 2 and Henry VI part 3. The commoners were unknown, but are the majority in society. They used to live under their authoritative monarch and had a significant influence on the regular daily operations that used to take place. They used to control theater trade and trade. The relationship between the commoners and the authority was important because it promoted the completion of tasks. As a result, there were great people who were part of the commoners that affected kinship, rebellion, succession, class structure, and everyday living.

King Henry was affected greatly, whereby his response to the public was determined by his mental state and physical wellness. The commoner’s character had an influence on King Henry’s inability and lack of capabilities to rule. This however, affected the masculinity if King Henry. In Henry VI part 2 the commoners are discussed in-depth where Jack Cade is known to be the one who lead the rebellion in England (Shakespeare 1591). The rebellion that Cade created influenced York to desire to take the throne despite King Henry being he rightful heir.  However, more focus is driven to King Henry’s capability of making critical decisions. There is graphic paint that shows how King Henry had no leadership skills where the painting showed how in the battle of Molehill, a father killed his son, and the son kills his father. The King Henry’s inability to rule is causing the commoners to suffer which gave him the realization that he had no ability nor skills to rule his people. The situation of the commoners and King Henry shows that a lack of leadership skills can affect the way people live in society. The commoners had a significant influence on King Henry’s perspective, especially what their families were experiencing. He also was traumatized by witnessing the rebellion that was made by Cade. The decisions that were made brought about turmoil and suffering, which brought conflict to the class structure. Generally, the commoners may not have been publicized to the streets, but they had a considerable influence in the ruling of King Henry at the outcomes that come thereof.

Additionally, Shakespeare comes in the time that there was a great plague that had affected and killed countless people in London. There were about 11 503 people who died as a result of plague in 1593, where later in 1603, the number of deaths increased to 30, 5621. Shakespeare’s plays brought joy, thus made people escape the reality of despair and death. On the other hand, Shakespeare management record instances where there were great battles that caused a lot of shading of blood, such as the “War of Roses” and the Lancastrians and Yorkists. These battles are believed to have lasted for about two decades from 1450 to 1485. There was another battle of Towton; about 100,000 of solders had chosen to fight for their country. Generally, the events above show how the commoners were affected by war. The battle caused the lives of about 37,000 solders because of fighting through the snowy condition.  In the play, Shakespeare tries to utilize the tactic of mirroring the death, for both violence and plague so that he could show the miserable conditions that people lived in. On the other hand, the commoners experienced different results of kinship form two prominent leaders such as john Ponte and king James. This two leaders come up with different theories that tried to define the role of leadership to the society. For instance, the Ponte’s theory showed that the commoners had voice and influence while the monarch was contractually thankful to them. King James’s theory was different from Ponte’s theory which was focused on the rules of the divine God. This mean that God was the supreme leader and his rules where to be followed to detail. As a result, the divine right come from the idea of God’s choice of monarch thus blood lines were important when it came to leadership. The idea of blood line brought a lot of issue between York, Margaret Jack Cade, King Henry and Richard. The struggle of power affected the commoners such as the decision that Cade to start rebellion cause chaos for the commoners for both the ones living in lower and upper class. King Henry remained with eh consequences for lack of authority over his country.  The powers that the King had where evident to be weak I the scene of Henry VI part 2. This is seen where York made an agreement with King Henry to “duchy of Anjou and the county of Maine” so that he could exchange with Margaret the bride to be. The two countries had no right to trade together especially on the matter such as this. It was a scheme that York had made so that he could take the throne. York then thought of hiring Jack Cade so that he could lead an attack to London so that he could provoke violence. The commoners had believed York’s ideas through being manipulated by his works saying that he is the rightful King. The battle of the throne brought about the division in the society, putting the commoners in a hard path where they are confused about whether to trust King Henry or not.

In addition, the commoners reached a point that they were questioning their King. They decided to ask King Henry if he was the one who killed Gloucester, which was not valid. There was no decision made through political powers. As a result, the commoners chose to take matters on their own hands because they believed that the nobles sat down and decided to do nothing. The commoners told the King to act and punish the person responsible for the death or they will do it themselves. The person to receive the punishment was Suffolk who was innocent which never stopped the violence of the commoners. This shows how the commoners reached a point that they thought for themselves and told King Henry to act accordingly like a leader. The commoners that did not put their trust in the King chose to follow Cade to the rebellion so that they could operate and demonstrate on the weakness of their leaders. The influence was great as the commoners chose to follow Cade while he shouted, “Be brave, then, for your captain is brave and vows reformation” (Shakespeare 4.2.69-70). Shakespeare had included this line to show how Cade uses the techniques of persuasion to control a huge crowd of hungry people to rebel against their King. More it showed strength, authority and warfare which is what King Henry was missing as a leader. This traits that King Henry lacked were the main and the major pillars that supported leadership. The lack of the characteristics made King Henry be seen as an unworthy leader by the commoners to the point of being repelled by them. commoners were never known to have such strength that could spark a revolution. The Cade’s rebellion reviled how the commoners were capable of coming together to fulfill a particular course. The ability to collaborate brought about the feeling of entitlement and showed that the commoners had a part in making a critical decision that involves the throne. Generally, in the real sense the commoners had been deceived by Cade to follow on the plans of York who had a plan of taking the throne. Because of their human emotions they became venerable to the lies of York and Cade. Shakespeare tries to shed light on how this era the life expectancy was so low because of different circumstances such as plague, low education, and wars. The perspective that Shakespeare is using today shows how people have a desire to take positions of leadership with being elected by the people. The politics today has no different with the one portrayed in King Henry’s era. Some leaders have the same behaviors such as the one that York had in desiring to take down leaders after seeing their weakness. Some leaders have a silver tongue that can persuade people blindly to make decisions that are not best for them where come to realize later how they were manipulated. For instance, Cade had taken the opportunity of the situation that the commoners were in and decided to manipulate them to follow on the plan of rebelling against their King. At this time, the commoners had no clue that they are being lied to; they thought that Cade had seen their problems and thought of helping them to go against the King. Despite the damage that the rebellion had caused it was later controlled by Clifford. Clifford made comments that made the commoners came to their senses. He told the commoners that they are following Cade, who had no association with the King, nor is he his son. He further said to them that King Henry is the rightful heir of the throne, and he is still loyal to them. The truth behind the plot that was made against the King was reviled on the public, thus making the commoners change their ways and follow their leader King Henry. Henry was a great king who trusted his people; however, he had no leadership traits, thus did not convince the commoners.

The decision that the commoners took was shown to be in a violent manner, whereby it showed a wait and see approach in Henry VI part 3. The commoners used to see their King as the son who could kill his father according to the portrait of the war of Molehill. This means that the decisions that King Henry made had come out as consequences of a violent society. On the other hand, his wife Margaret had taken charge of the army, which means that she is the one controlling the battlefield. This step had compromised the authoritative state of King Henry. He was reduced to a normal man with no0 authority over his people. After looking at the situations that he was in the desire to have a life of a commoner where he is not bothered by the pressure of the society and the country in general. He believed that the life of a commoner was straightforward. As a result, King Henry said that “O God! Methinks it was a happy life to be better than homely swain, to sit upon a hill, as I do now; to carve out dials quaintly by point” (Shakespeare 2.5.21-24). This quote shows how desperate he was to live as the commoners who seemed to have a good life. Basically, he never had the desire nor the mind to be a monarch. This kind of perspective is what York and Richard were seen as a weakness that can be preyed upon. According to Shakespeare, the personalities of King Henry were silent and benevolent, which are not classified as the traits that reflect a true leader. Shakespeare tries to show his audience that their two sides of a king which is the leading part and the human part.

In sum, the Shakespeare plays Henry VI part 2, and part 3 show vivid participation of the commoners and their influence on leaders.  The commoners were known to be people with no impact on society, but when they come together for a standard course, their strength was felt. The power of togetherness can influence many things, both positive and negative. However, the problems that the commoners were pacing through were used as a weakness by York, who had planned to remove the king form the seat of kingship and be the King despite not being in the bloodline of kinship. York saw some leadership skills in Cade and used it as an advantage of creating a rebellion that would cause violence in the country. The power of commoners was used wrong to execute actions that were not right.

Works cited

Shakespeare, William. Henry VI.: Part Three. Oxford University Press, USA, 2001.