Henry VIII of England | Criticism

This literature criticism consists of approximately 41 pages of analysis & critique of Henry VIII of England.

Henry VIII of England | Criticism

This literature criticism consists of approximately 41 pages of analysis & critique of Henry VIII of England.
This section contains 9,945 words
(approx. 34 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the Critical Essay by A. Lynne Magnusson

SOURCE: “The Rhetoric of Politeness and Henry VIII,” in Shakespeare Quarterly, Vol. 43, No. 4, Winter, 1992, pp. 391-409.

In the essay below, Magnusson examines the “social rhetoric of politeness” in Shakespeare's Henry VIII. The critic maintains that gender and class have an effect on speech patterns and attempts to “help us toward a new understanding of the social construction in language of dramatic character.”

In Henry VIII, when the class-conscious Duke of Buckingham, conversing with the Duke of Norfolk and the Lord Abergavenny, becomes increasingly heated in his criticisms of the upstart Cardinal Wolsey, Norfolk offers this advice:

                                        I advise you (And take it from a heart that wishes towards you Honor and plenteous safety) that you read The cardinal's malice and his potency Together; to consider further, that What his high hatred would effect wants not A minister in his power. 

(1.1.102-8)1

In the construction of Norfolk's speech, two...

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This section contains 9,945 words
(approx. 34 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the Critical Essay by A. Lynne Magnusson
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