Shakespeare make compelling Drama
Shakespeare makes compelling drama between Falstaff and Hal in many ways and in different scenes. As the personalities and characteristics of these two characters are very different, for example the comical jester amongst other things that is Falstaff clashes with the classical Prince Hal who stands for what he believes in. This makes it easier to create the drama that Shakespeare has made between the both of them. In Act1 Scene2, most of this scene has only direct conversation between Falstaff and Hal.
Falstaff enters with quite a casual attitude, by saying this I mean that I think his stance would be quite a relaxed one and that he would look jolly and be using big hand gestures to show the audience he likes to make a scene. He is always up to some sort of mischief, so he tells Hal that they should go out and rob some people at night “you come near me now Hal, for we that take purses go by the moon and the seven stars”.
This creates some drama because the audience will see the reaction that Hal gives to Falstaff when he suggests things like this.
On the stage, Falstaff would probably be quite close to Hal and act quite jolly and maybe tipsy as this is the sort of person he is, judging from Hal’s first description of him “Thou art so fat-witted with drinking of old sack, and unbuttoning thee after supper, and sleeping upon benches after noon”. This tells the audience how lazy Falstaff is and in this little description of Falstaff, Hal mocks Falstaff quite a bit about his ways of living.
This can cause some comedy for the audience and I would imagine that Falstaff’s pace of his speech and movement would be quite uneven for this scene, this is because at some points in his speech he is fairly calm and then at some other points he gets quite angry and irritated. E. g. At one point in the scene he will be calm “Now Hal, what time of day is it lad? ” then at another he will have got quite angry or irritated by something “How now, how now mad wag? What, in thy quips and thy quiddities? What a plague have I do with a buff jerkin? ” This shows his quick mood changes.
The mood of this scene isn’t very serious or formal as you can tell by Shakespeare’s use of prose so this is why Falstaff acts like this in this scene. This applies to most of the scene apart from the end when Hal talks using verse and this implicates that he is using a more formal and royal way of talking and he is addressing people as his own, but he is talking to himself and the audience. In Act1 Scene2 Falstaff acts like a vice to Prince Hal, this is evident as throughout the scene he is trying to convince Prince Hal that it would be good if they got out there into the town and started to steal from their people as it were.
He’s a cowardly but boastful character, which causes some drama between him and Hal, as Hal throughout this scene doesn’t want to do the things that Falstaff is suggesting. On stage I think that Hal would have his back to Falstaff a lot as he doesn’t really want to hear what Falstaff is telling him but Falstaff would work his way round Hal maybe putting both his hands on Hal’s shoulders as if to represent a fatherly figure in his stance but not in his speech.
You can see the contrast in behaviour between Falstaff and Hal because in Falstaff’s speech it is very common and Hal’s is quite sophisticated and posh, as when Poins enters and tells Falstaff and Hal about the possible robbery, and they ask Hal whether he wants to join in he replies with “Who I? Rob? I a thief? Not I, by my faith”, this shows that he still knows that he is part of a royal family and he knows he shouldn’t rob a person though he has done in the past but this is part of his reformation that he talks about at the end of this scene.
When Falstaff exits out of the scene, his last words mock Hal and they are quite provoking, although Hal does not get provoked or angry very quickly here. Falstaff says to Poins “Well, God give thee the spirit of persuasion, and him the ears of profiting… the true prince may – for recreation sake – prove a false thief, for the poor abuses of time want countenance”. I would think that on the stage, Falstaff would be very sarcastic in this speech in his tone of voice and a lot of scepticism would be in his voice also as he thinks that as he can’t convince the Prince to come to this daylight robbery, nobody else can either.
I think that he would have some attitude, maybe a feeling of defeat or disbelief when he went off stage because he couldn’t convince Hal to come with him. This may also create some comedy in the audience. I think overall that in this scene, Shakespeare creates drama between these two main characters because he has created quite an informal setting between these two roles and their reactions to each other are contrasting a lot of the time. In Act5 Scene3, half way through is where Falstaff and Prince Hal enter after Douglas kills Blunt.
As the battle has commenced, the mood of this scene is quite serious and powerful as it is a royal battle. Hal enters into the scene with a strong and intense feeling about him because he is very intent to show people that he is worthy of being the king one day and being responsible and level headed. You can see this by the first line he says which is “What, standest thou idle here? Lend me thy sword. Many a nobleman lies stark and stiff”. In this line he is basically saying to Falstaff “Why are you standing here idle?
Give me your sword as many people are lying dead”, this shows the audience that Hal means business in this scene and doesn’t understand why Falstaff is just standing there. When Falstaff refuses to hand over his sword to Hal, Hal gets irritated and this would cause some drama for the audience as Falstaff does break the tension in the atmosphere. He treats the situation that they are in, in a trivial way and isn’t as serious as Hal. This can actually be seen as mocking Hal in a way, passing witty comments throughout this scene and play.
When Falstaff tells Hal to take his pistol that is in fact his bottle of wine, it is quite comical for the audience, as you don’t expect somebody to do that in the circumstances that they are in, a form of dramatic irony. I think that when Hal finds out that the pistol isn’t actually a pistol, he would get very irritated and angry at Falstaff as he is tired of Falstaff’s attitude towards things judging by his line after he finds out “What, is it a time to jest and dally now?
” I expect that on stage, Hal would have a strong tone of voice and he would create tension between him and Falstaff. This is a major contrast between these two characters in both their attitudes as Falstaff is quite laid back and is being quite foolish, playing the comical character that he likes to be. This is whilst Hal is being quite stern and serious as he wants to win this battle not mess around and can’t take it when Falstaff does.
I think that the audience would enjoy this as when there is a moment of tension or suspense the play or scene becomes more enjoyable to watch. I think that in this scene the tension between these two characters is the most compared to a lot of the scenes in this play. Although it is a very short scene, there are a lot of dramatic techniques used in it. Overall in King Henry IV Part 1, Shakespeare uses a lot of dramatic techniques and that makes drama compelling between Falstaff and Prince Hal in many different ways and forms.
