Term Paper on "Henry V"

Term Paper 4 pages (1385 words) Sources: 3 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Henry V Driving the Leadership Engine -- William Shakespeare's ideal, motivational king and the management philosophy of Noel M. Tichy

The great, rallying speech William Shakespeare's Henry V makes to his English troops before the decisive battle of Agincourt contains some of Shakespeare's greatest heroic poetry. However, the St. Crispin's Day made by Henry speech can be boiled down to one, essential theme: "We're all in this together." The great king Henry V in the play and later in the movie, based upon Shakespeare's play becomes one of the common soldiers, and also, in his rhetoric elevates the common soldiers to the level of a king.

In Kenneth Branagh's film, Henry V's face is smeared with dirt, and he is no longer the young, attractive, and careless leader of the beginning of the film. That king lead his nation heedlessly into a foolish war, to regain the French territories lost to Henry's predecessors. Despite the fact that the English troops were lesser in number, they proved greater in valor, and against all odds, they triumphed. But because Henry's war is based on a fairly tenuous claim, when the English army realized they were outnumbered, the men were angry and resentful. They had suffered on the long campaign, and they had forgotten what they were fighting for in the first place. Without a sense of mission, most of the men would rather go home. Shakespeare's Henry knew he needed to motivate the English soldiers, restore his legitimacy as a king and leader in their eyes, and give them a common purpose, even if the purpose is only tenuously based in rhetoric. Essentially, in the speech he rolls up his sleeves and acts like a common soldier and appeals to English grit and sense of honor. They have come so far, how can they turn back now, he asks?

The purpose of fighting is glory and proving one's manhood, urges Henry. "The fewer men, the greater share of honour." In other words, if people are not 100% committed, they can leave, because half-hearted soldiers are not wanted and do not deserve a stake in the great accomplishments that will take place. Those soldiers who are truly committed will simply have to work harder. An autocratic king might threaten a soldier who refused to fight with the law and pain of death. However, Henry stresses that money is not the primary objective of the cause and offers generosity towards those who will not fight: He is a truly transactional, transpersonal, and inspiring leader, rather than a leader who uses his status as a goad to performance. "Let him depart; his passport shall be made/and crowns for convoy put into his purse:/We would not die in that man's company/That fears his fellowship to die with us" (4.2).

The cause is glorious, he stresses, and it is an honor, not a danger to fight and take risks. By making the fight a personal challenge, rather than focusing on some of the more dubious parts of the mission, the men feel as if they are being unmanly if they do not stand with the king on the feast of Crispin. Henry says that the battle will go down throughout the ages, and those who do live will remember it, and be remembered forever. When Henry says: "Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,/but he'll remember with advantages" what he did, he stresses that few people have great moments in their lives when they are tested, but this is one of them -- and he adds a little humorous, clever jab about memory, showing his wit and intelligence as a leader, noting how people tend to remember their performance 'with advantages,' or better than they actually were (4.2). These jokes do not lessen the seriousness of Henry's message but rather they show he is 'one of the boys.' The men feel like they are fighting for one of their own, not by someone of greater status who pulls rank to justify his command.

Henry is great at personalizing his speech. He actually goes into a roll call of those who stand with him. In the film, the camera… READ MORE

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