The Significance Of Virtue In King Henry's Speech

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In Saint Crispin’s day, King Henry’s troops are faced with battle in which his army is heavily outnumbered by the French. Despite these poor odds, he keeps the morale of his men up with a great speech. The battle was surely lost before it had started, but through the sheer force of will that Henry’s speech gave his men, they came out victorious in the end. Henry expresses three main points of virtue in his speech that inspires his men. Henry holds a great significance concerning the lives of all of his men. He does not discriminate against them and believes that they all should hold certain privileges. When you’re a king of thousands of soldiers, it’s effortless to forget what a single life is worth. Henry never forgets that importance. Henry states “If we are mark'd to die, we are enough to do our country loss… I pray thee, wish not one man more… I would not lose so great an honor as one man more”. The price Henry must pay for this battle, a number of men that must die is enough already. He cares for every man in his army and believes that even one more life from his army is too much behalf of everyone being worth something. Henry composes his men as though they are not discriminated against based on their past and have a high degree of importance despite the various differences between them. In the army, social status does not matter. …show more content…

He won the battle not because of superior odds, but as a result of the speech that invigorated a true fighting spirit of his men. A peasant with nothing to live for and no will to fight will not perform nearly as well as a man filled with dignity and honor. King Henry made all of his comrades feel as though they weren’t anything, but dignified warriors. His speech was able to compose this great of an impact with his speech with reason that his words are backed up by his past actions. A marvelous king can rule righteously, a great king can also love and be loved by his