Henry VI, Part 1 Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Maurice Hunt

Critical Essay by Maurice Hunt

SOURCE: “Unnaturalness in Shakespeare's 3 Henry VI,” in English Studies, Vol. 80, No. 2, April, 1999, pp. 146-67.

In the essay below, Hunt locates in Henry VI, Part 3 a unity of design based upon the motif of unnaturalness, particularly in the unnatural disinheritance of Henry's son, which becomes a driving force in subsequent incidents in the drama.

While popular during Shakespeare's lifetime, 3 Henry VI became relatively unpopular with audiences and readers alike in later centuries, partly because this chronicle history play has appeared loosely episodic rather than unified and rendered coherent by a principle informing history.¹ That is not to say that claims have not been made for its structural integrity. A. L. French, following the suggestion of R. G. Moulton, has argued that ‘it is perfectly possible to read Henry VI and Richard III as being organized on the principle of Crime and Punishment or Hubris and...
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