The Illusion Of Theatre Conventions In Henry V By William Shakespeare

It is the aim for all playwrights to create a work that on stage seems to be true, or, at least, can be imagined to be true for the length of its playing. When the players of Peter Quince’s company, the mechanicals, come together to rehearse their production of Pyramus and Thisbe for the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Athens they discover the difficulty of creating this illusion. Unfortunately the theatrical talents, or lack of, of the mechanicals seem better suited to fulfil the role of an example of how not to put on a play, to “serve as an indirect apology for [Shakespeare’s] own necessarily imperfect attempt to represent fairy land.” And indeed this would not be the first time Shakespeare appears to doubt his ability to create such

Audience members are aware that not everything they see should be taken for granted, and as they become caught up in the illusion of the play, they enter into a state of “suspended disbelief.” In Henry V Shakespeare removes this element somewhat, the Chorus’ six appearances on stage see them apologising for the theatres inability to “hold the vastly fields of France” and “the very casques, /that did affright the air at Agincourt” and therefore asks that they, the “ciphers to this great account, /on your imaginary forces work.” By doing this Shakespeare is explicitly requesting the usually implicit contract of theatrical illusion. Indeed the Chorus of Henry V deconstructs the theatrical illusion in a similar fashion to the mechanicals in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, though not entirely, and it can be seen through aspects of Bottom’s “device to make all well” echoing in the Chorus’ apologies. Both parties, though with different intentions, describe the simulated nature of their battle, Bottom in asking for Quince to “…write [him] a prologue, and let the prologue seem to say we will do no harm with our swords, and that Pyramus is not killed indeed.” Whilst the Chorus asks forgiveness