Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Derek Cohen

Critical Essay by Derek Cohen

SOURCE: "Monopolizing Violence: Henry V" in Shakespeare's Culture of Violence, St. Martin's Press, 1993, pp. 62-78.

In the following essay, Cohen studies the use of violence in Henry V, arguing that in this play, violence is used politically by a monarch "in the service of order and success."

In Henry V, . . . violence has become the handmaiden of absolutist monarchy; it is employed by the monarch in the service of order and success. The drama is thus a culmination of the fractious disordered violence in the previous plays of the tetralogy where it is a generalized implement in the quest for power. It is a truism of that world of civil disharmony that control of the means of violence is synonymous with the control of the monarchy. As the monarchs and would-be monarchs of the previous three dramas desire it, Henry V finally achieves total control of the...
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