Study Questions &
Essay Topics
Study Questions
1. 1 Henry
IV is in many ways a study of contrasting characters, including
Harry, Hotspur, Falstaff, and King Henry. Does the play have a single
protagonist or many characters of equal importance? Why is the play
named after King Henry?
2. 1 Henry IV
explores the qualities of a king and how a king ought to bear himself
in relation to other people. Consider the various candidates for
kingship in the play (King Henry IV himself, Prince Harry, Hotspur)
and discuss what qualities the main contenders would bring to bear
on kingship. Do these qualities help the eventual winners defeat
the losers, or is it merely a question of luck?
3. The play contains
many instances of symmetry, in which scenes or even people seem
to be slightly altered reflections of other scenes or people. Look
for scenes where you think that a previous event is being repeated or
transformed or for characters who are explicitly contrasted or compared.
Which scenes or characters are these? Why might Shakespeare use
this technique?
4.
1 Henry
IV mixes prose and poetry to an extraordinary degree. Consider the
places in which the two modes occur in the play. Why did Shakespeare
choose to write his play this way? Do you think that some of the characters
“demand” to speak in prose or in poetry? How would the character
of Falstaff, for instance, be different if he spoke in iambic pentameter
or that of King Henry if he always spoke in prose? Can you see Harry’s
shifts from poetry to prose and back again as an indication of changes
in his frame of mind, his environment, or his ambitions over the
course of the play?
Suggested Essay Topics
1. Many critics see in 1 Henry
IV a complicated pattern of displacement. Hotspur
displaces Harry in his father’s eyes, for instance, and Harry must
win back the place he has lost (by killing Hotspur). Similarly,
Falstaff has displaced King Henry IV as Harry’s father figure. What
choices lead to these displacements? Why do you think Shakespeare
created them? How (and why) are they resolved—if they are resolved?
2. Many critics have found Falstaff
more fascinating than any other character in the play. The critic
Harold Bloom, for instance, takes a cue from Hegel in claiming that
Falstaff and Hamlet are Shakespeare’s two most intelligent characters: they
are, as Hegel claims, “free artists of themselves,” self-aware beings
who invent themselves through their own self-descriptions; in fact,
they are “men made out of words.” What do you think Bloom means
by this? Consider the way in which Falstaff uses words, humor, and
punning not only to negotiate the world around him, but also to
constantly describe and redescribe himself. What is the impression
of Falstaff that we ultimately come away with, and where (or with
whom) does it originate?
3. Think about Act II, scene
iv, in which Hotspur is confronted by his wife about his plans for
the rebellion. What does this scene tell us about Hotspur’s character?
What does it tell us about Renaissance marriage and the role of
women in general? How does Shakespeare connect this analysis to
the forward motion of his plot?
