return home. No one leaves the king’s side and this demonstrates they loyalty they all have towards their king and country. They follow the king’s words; “We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he to-day that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile.” ( 4.3. 60-63) Even though they are outnumbered they will still fight together as a team. They do not want to let their country down and be seen as cowards. They will stand and fight for their home and their people which shows great pride in their land. A shocking moment in the play was when Henry declared that “every soldier kill his prisoners.” (4.6. 38) In these days prisoners could be sold for a large sum of money. The king could have sold them and conjured …show more content…
Many consider this to be a very far fetched ending on Shakespeare’s behalf however one could claim that it follows the theme of patriotism. The play would have been performed in England at the time and when audience members watch it they themselves would feel pride in their country and get a sense of patriotism themselves, which Shakespeare more than likely was the reason for the ending. However people are led to believe that the final toll of deaths that Shakespeare gives to be a factual …show more content…
An example would be Michael Taylor saying that “For Tudor chroniclers and poets Henry’s prowess had the quality of myth…” (Taylor, 2015, p.9). there are some evidence of myth being in the play, look at the chorus, they represent the mythical voice of the play. there are contradictions in the play. we are told that Hnery took only one quarter of his army to fight with him leaving behind the rest to protect England, yet in act three the chorus says that “And leave your England, as dead midnight still, guarded with grandsires, babies and old women.” (3. 19-20) here they say that it is guarded with everyone except the army. So in looking at it this way one would think that the king was not as patriotic as once deemed, taking his entire army with him and leaving no protection for his people. However Shakespeare mentions the idea of the army back at home numerous times like when the men are preparing for the final battle and some comment on their jealousy of the soldiers back at home, so it seems more believable that the king did infact spilt his army to protect his