Critical Essay | Critical Essay by David Scott Kastan

Critical Essay by David Scott Kastan

SOURCE: "'The King is a Good King, but it must be as it may': History, Heroism, and Henry V" in Shakespeare and the Shapes of Time, University Press of New England, 1982, pp. 56-76.

In the essay below, Kastan argues that Henry's moral certitude prevents him from questioning the justice of his cause or permitting anyone else to challenge it. The critic maintains that the king is convinced that God is on his side and that the war against France is legally as well as divinely sanctioned, and so he ignores or suppresses any suggestion of moral ambiguity or complexity.

As Spenser and Milton understood so well, the reformation forced a significant revaluation of the traditional ideas and images of heroism. Human strength must be a problematic virtue in a world shaped by and charged with the will of God, but even more so when faith rather than deeds is...
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