Literary Devices in Henry VI Part 1
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Setting
To Shakespeare's audience, this is historical fiction. Medieval England and France are important in this culture the way, say, Revolutionary or Civil War history are in American culture. Henry V ha...
Narrator Point of View
This is a play, so there's no narrator point of view here!
Genre
Most importantly, this is historical fiction. Shakespeare tells the stories of English history in a way meant to be entertaining and educational, emphasis on the entertaining. History's great and a...
Tone
When your play starts with the death of one of your country's greatest leaders, it's unlikely to be a comedy. When it ends with that leader's less-than-assertive son about to make a spectacularly b...
Writing Style
Shakespeare's famous for blank verse in his plays, and Henry VI, Part 1 falls right in line. Blank verse has no rhyme, instead featuring iambic pentameter, which has ten syllables per line, and fol...
What's Up With the Title?
Okay, this one looks pretty obvious: Henry VI, Part 1 is names after the central character, Henry VI. But wait—it's not as simple as it looks. Which doesn't mean it's super complicated, just that...
What's Up With the Ending?
Things do not look good for our heroes. The war in France has not been a smashing success, and Henry VI is about to ignore Gloucester's advice and marry a poor woman whose political connections are...
Tough-o-Meter
You can definitely do this. You may need to do a few mental calisthenics and pack your parka, but we totally believe in you. Sure, the language is old-fashioned, but it doesn't have those long spee...
Plot Analysis
The Bad BeginningHenry V goes and dies, leaving the English aristocracy in an uproar. The next king is literally a baby, the French territory Henry conquered is rebelling, and the nobles may not...
Trivia
Henry VI meets Downton Abbey. Looks like Hugh Bonneville plays Gloucester in the BBC The Hollow Crown adaptation.(Source.)Theater on the Battlefield: The Globe Shakespeare Theater actually staged t...
Steaminess Rating
This play isn't the steamiest going by Shakespeare's standards, but you probably don't want to take your little brother or sister along to the theater, either. While most of the scenes feature bure...
Allusions
Deborah (1.2)Mars (1.2)Henry V (Act 1, Scene 1)Tomyris (2.3)None. Not because Shakespeare didn't have them—he totally did—but since he didn't time travel, there's not so much as a single shout-...