God save King Henry, of that name the Sixth

Thus finisheth I part one of King Henry VI.

First of all, can I say that I am immensely entertained by the fact that the play ended on a cliffhanger? In the film version of the play running in my head I could see the "To Be Continued".

The way this cliffhanger is accomplished is by introducing a new plot strand right near the end of the play, namely that of Suffolk trying to wed Henry and Margaret. Shakespeare normally doesn't introduce new storylines like that so late in a play, but since this is only the first part in the trilogy, I suppose that's to be expected.

The highlight of the play, for me, was the death of the Talbots at the end of Act IV. In a play with the sheer number of characters that 1 Henry VI has, it can be hard to really care about any of them, but I was moved by that scene. I agree with the introduction in the Arden Complete Works which says that Talbot and Joan are the most compelling characters in the play; interestingly enough, King Henry himself is a rather minor character until the end.

Joan of Arc's depiction was simply bizarre for someone like myself who has been raised in a culture which considers her to be a hero. Obviously, Shakespeare was English, as were the heroes of the play, so it's no surprise really that Joan of Arc didn't get a positive portrayal. It's still jarring to my modern sensibilities. One wishes that Shakespeare could have written a version of the story of Joan in which she was actually the main character and wasn't simply being called "witch" by the English all the time. Having said that, she is still one of the most interesting characters in the play, more so than the other French, who all sort of blended together for me (I could keep Charles distinct because he was the Dauphin, but the others...)

There seemed to be an anti-Catholic strand running throughout the play, interesting since presumably all of the characters in the play are Catholic, and presumably Shakespeare was not (though there is dispute about this). The primary reason why I suspect this anti-Catholic undercurrent is the importance placed upon Joan's religion in her first scene, and since Joan is not a character we are supposed to identify with, I don't think it's an accident that her religion is thus emphasized. I could be off-base about this, though.

Finally, I want to talk about King Henry VI himself. Still just a child, he constantly tries to bring peace to various warring factions, not only those within England but also on a grander scale England and France. Is this desire to avoid conflict childlike or childish? In this first part it seems like Henry's goals are noble, and his problem is not his motivations, but rather that his naivety allows him to be manipulated by those around him. I guess I'll have to get onto reading part 2 and 3 to see if my analysis is correct. (Tangent: I don't know/remember the actual history very well, so I can say that I have only a vague notion about what will happen. I've been looking up some things about the actual King Henry VI as I've been reading, though. That's a cool thing about reading Shakespearean histories: it leads me to seek out the real histories, and then I learn cool stuff. End tangent.)

All right, next up in my reading is Henry VI, part two! See you there!