Henry IV Part 2 Themes

Opening with a monologue delivered by personified Rumor, Henry IV Part 2 establishes its interest in lies right from the start. The play goes on to examine lies of many varieties, from the collaborative, population-wide lies that are rumors passed from person to person to the calculated, individually conceived lies that are deceptions designed by a single character for a specific purpose. “Rumor is a pipe,” Rumor explains, “blown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures, /…

Henry IV Part 2 is a play tainted by literal and figurative diseases. Its characters are as sick of body as they are of soul, and its atmosphere as heavy with actual illness as its language is thick with illness’ metaphors. King Henry IV’s physical sickness stands at the heart of the play. The characters around him initially assume that his sickness is just the side-effect of an anxious spirit and that his…

In exploring disease and the right to the throne, Henry IV Part 2 also explores the theme of time through the aging body and the aging memory’s interpretations of history. Aside from being sick, King Henry IV is simply old. He complains frequently about his weary agedness and about the way the years have worn on him, rendering his boisterous, ambitious youth unrecognizable to his current self. Falstaff likewise struggles with his aging human…

Henry IV Part 1 presented warfare as meaningless bloodshed devoid of grandeur and so too does Henry IV Part 2 present war in an unfavorable light. Yet while Part 1’s extended, gruesome battle scenes illustrated war’s senseless violence, this play focuses on war’s other negative attributes. Henry IV Part 2 doesn’t feature any actual battles, but instead showcases the gross corruption and dishonorable cruelties that war inspires in people.

Falstaff merrily engages in ignoble…