Analysis of the language and imagery in Henry V has yielded a variety of critical interpretations. Michael Goldman studies the use of language to exhort and to motivate listeners to action. He asserts that the speeches in the play are passionate and require great physical effort by the speaker. Robert Hapgood concentrates on the disputative tone of the language in the play, maintaining that the speech contributes to the constant arguments and the movement from peace to war. C. H. Hobday also notes the transition to war by assessing the references to death imagery in Henry V. For further analysis of the language and imagery of Henry V; see the essay by Landon C. Burns, Jr. in the EPIC ELEMENTS section.
Source: "Shakespeare's Thematic Modes of Speech: Richard II to Henry V;" in Shakespeare Survey: An.....
