Henry V: Difference between revisions

=== This play and the two films contain examples of: ===

* [[All for Nothing]]: The final lines remind us that Henry VI would undo all his father's accomplishments in gaining rule over France, however impressive they were.

* [[Bilingual Bonus]]: The French princess and her nurse have a long [[Double Entendre]] conversation in French based upon their misunderstandings of English. The best part is that the pun works (or at least makes sense -- foutre means "to fuck" with a heavy French accent), especially since the entire scene exists mostly as an excuse for that pun.

* [[Bittersweet Ending]]: Henry has a glorious victory at Agincourt and it appears his marriage to Princess Catherine will be a happy one; yet two of the comic relief characters are dead and the remaining one has lost his wife, forcing him to become a pimp and thief. And then the chorus reminds us that all of Henry's accomplishments meant very little in a historical sense, as the Hundred Years' War would continue with his son losing the claim to France all over again.

* [[Composite Character]]: Some of the roles in the Branagh production, such as the French ambassador or an English herald, were given to the French herald Montjoy.

* [[Cool and Unusual Punishment]]: Fluellen's response to getting dissed is to smack Pistol around, and then make him eat a leek. Some performances have him smacked around ''with'' said leek.

* [[Darker and Edgier]]: A whole bunch of comic characters from the previous two plays are brought in and killed off.

* [[Determinator]]: "Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more!"

* [[Funny Foreigner]]: The Irish, Scottish, and Welsh soldiers in the English forces, who also form a [[Five Token Band]].

* [[Gender Neutral Narrator]]: The Chorus's gender is never specified, though in Elizabethan times a female version would have been very strange.

* [[The Ghost]]: For a character who dies without ever appearing onstage, Falstaff comes up quite often.

* [[Greek Chorus]]: The aptly named Chorus, whose function is to explain background historical context and plead for appropriate [[Willing Suspension of Disbelief]].

* [[Oireland]]: With Macmorris, perhaps the [[Ur Example]].

* [[Original Position Gambit]]: Henry asks the nobles plotting against him what he should do to someone who's committed treason. When they say he should execute traitors, he agrees -- and executes them.

* [[Picture Perfect Presentation]]: This is how Oliver makes his transition from the filmed-play portion to the cinematic story.

* [[Real Life Relative]]: Branagh cast wife [[Emma Thompson]] as Catherine.

* [[War Is Hell]]/[[War Is Glorious]]: Depending on the interpretation - modern adaptations tend to go with the former, though a notable exception was Olivier in 1944, in which the play was presented as a glorious British resistance against an evil foreign empire. No prizes for guessing [[World War Two|why.]]

* [[Warrior Prince]]: Henry himself, of course.

 

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