English 117E: Henry IV, Part 1 discussion topics
From UCSB English Department Knowledge Base
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English 117E: Shakespeare for Non-Majors
TA: Melissa Stevenson
Fall 1998
These topics are intended to facilitate our discussions and, possibly, to spur ideas for writing your papers. Please consider them while you read, and be prepared to discuss them in section.
1. Binaries
Pairs and foils. In the play several characters serve as rough opposites or equivalents, their differences serving to highlight differences in character and ways of life generally. Consider how the following pairs or groups are used to set each other off and the values they embody. See if you can find any other pairs or foils.
- Hotspur and Hal.
- The king’s men and Falstaff’s men--Note the differences in the way they speak.
- King’s men and the rebels.
- Mortimer in love and Hotspur in love.
- King as mentor vs. Falstaff as mentor.
- Falstaff and Hotspur as philosophers.
2. Duplicity
What do we make of Hal’s calculating duplicity? How and why does he change in the course of the play? What is he planning? Do you like him or hate him?
3. Values
What ways of thinking does Falstaff express vs. the soldiers of either the rebel camp or of the King? What does he think is the purpose of life? How does he think about war? What are the values of Hotspur and the rebel camp?
4. Timing
In the first part of the play several characters repeat a question asking the time. Why is there this obsession with knowing the time? What might this mean? Is it later than they think?
5. Friends and Family
How are familial relationships represented in the play with and against friendship relationships? What does family mean? How are the son and father relationships confused?
6. Falstaff
How is John Falstaff different from Toby Belch? What role does he play in Hal’s life? What does the introduction of comedy do to the overall tone of the play? What kind of character is Falstaff?
7. Hotspur
What are Hotspur’s virtues and faults? What errors, if any, in his character lead to his downfall? What do his friends think of him? How does he respond to criticism or to being led?
8. Sex and Violence
The last few plays we read were comedies with Bawdy sub-text. Here, the comedy is (mostly) gone, but sexual sub-text lingers. Consider the way in which the play uses sexual imagery to represent war and battle. What is the relationship of sex and violence in the play? Look at the warriors and their relation (or lack thereof) with and to women.
Assignment: Bring in a quote from the text which expresses the relation between sex and violence.
