Henry VIII

Buckingham's trial takes place offstage, though we hear about it through the narration of one of the commoners. He tried to defend himself, yet the most important part of his trial is his speech after being sentenced to death, when he forgives those who condemned him. Katharine's trial practically never happens, since the king has already decided to divorce her without the papers brought from Rome. She is brought before the court, but she pleads with the king before anything can be said. Then, she storms out of the court, making her angry conversations with Wolsey the most important window into her feelings about her divorce. We do see Wolsey's trial when the lords read the charges against him, including his efforts to deny some of the charges. But again it is his speech afterward, when he understands the implications of his fall, that is most telling. Cranmer never quite gets to the stage of the trial, but merely a preliminary hearing, and we observe it while we watch the king observing it. The extra eyes watching this turn of events seem to help put a halt to the cycle of blame and accusation as the king descends to stop the trial. Each trial has a different dynamic with different sets of observers, in which the concluding speeches are most important. Considering the message of those speeches is an important focus.

She has practically no role at all--and yet the biggest role of all. She is not even born until most of the way through the play, but the effort to get her born is the most important force behind the events in Henry VIII. In order for her to be born, anything that might get in the way must be eliminated, including Buckingham, Katharine, and Wolsey. Her birth is the fate toward which everyone in the play moves, which is fitting, as she is the queen under whom Shakespeare came to prominence, a universally loved savior of England; it was Elizabeth who ushered in the age in which James I, England's king at the time of the first performance of Henry Eighth, came to the throne.

Katharine is incredibly outspoken throughout this play. She begins by making a suit to Henry to reduce taxes, as the common people are upset and threaten to rebel. She seems to have a general awareness of events within the kingdom, and she is the only one to recognize that Buckingham has been framed by testimony of his former employee. Yet while she distrusts Wolsey, she is not able to foresee the downfall he plans for her. Still, throughout her divorce she will not acquiesce. She storms out of the court rather than submit to the corrupt Wolsey, and she holds her own against Wolsey and Cardinal Campeius, insisting on her loyalty and honor. Yet when she is finally divorced, she weakens, expecting death soon. Anne, on the other hand, barely speaks throughout the play and casts a much smaller shadow. She flirts with Sands at Wolsey's dinner party, and she tells her attendant that she thinks she would not want to be the queen. But somehow, offstage, she changes her mind, is married, crowned, and gives birth, all without speaking another word. Her role above all seems to be to deliver Elizabeth into the world and to look pretty at official events so the lords can compliment and approve her.