Writing Prompt Analysis of King Henry™s Speech (from Shakespeare™s play, Henry V) Heres the situation in Act 4, Scene 3

Writing Prompt

Analysis of King Henry’s Speech (from Shakespeare’s play, Henry V)

Heres the situation in Act 4, Scene 3 of Shakespeares Henry V: The year is 1415 a time when men fought with swords and wore suits of armor. Britains King Henry is leading an invasion of France, and the war has come down to a final battle. Who will win England or France? At first glance, it looks like the French army has an overwhelming advantage. They have five times as many soldiers as the English army. But the English army has a secret weapon. The English have a King who knows how to rouse his troops with the powers of language and rhetoric. And drawing upon these powers, King Henry of England will give his troops the mother of all pep talks. That pep talk is what were analyzing here

On October 24th (known as the eve of Saint Crispins day on the old Catholic calendar), King Henrys army is encamped across the battlefield in France called Agincourt. On the other side of the battlefield, the French army is setting up their camp. The battle has been arranged to begin at dawn on the following morning. As I mentioned before, the British forces are outnumbered by five to one, and this fact is plainly visible to every British soldier in King Henrys army as they look across the battlefield as night begins to fall.

In order to check on the morale of his troops, Henry has disguised himself as a common soldier to move among his men and eavesdrop on their conversations. He learns that they are very much afraid of getting slaughtered, and that many of them wish to break ranks and sneak away before the battle starts. One of Henrys bravest generals, the Earl of Westmorland, cries out that he wishes they had another 10,000 soldiers so that it would at least be a fair fight tomorrow. At that moment, Henry throws off his disguise and presents the following speech, chock-full of persuasive tricks, in order to prepare his men for the bloody fight against a superior force. History records that Henrys army did indeed win this battle, which was decisive and ultimately ended the war with victory going to England. This speech, Shakespeare implies, was instrumental in securing Henrys surprise victory over the full might of the numerically superior French army.

Your assignment is to identify and explain the sequence of persuasive moves that Henry makes over the course of this speech. His men outnumbered five to one were subsequently able to defeat the French after listening to their Kings rhetoric. They were so inspired by this speech that they were able to out-fight the French. So what exactly did King Henry say to inspire his men? How did this speech light the necessary fire within them that would make them fight like lions in this apparently hopeless battle? Walk me through Henrys speech step by step — and explain King Henrys persuasive moves as he transforms his terrified men into blood-thirsty super warriors. Go slow and really explain exactly how each persuasive move how each image Henry invokes and each emotion that Henry arouses inflames his men to outfight the French.

Note: In your analysis, I also want you to refer to one (or more) of our textbook’s selections regarding the power of language and rhetoric. Explain how Henry’s particular rhetorical moves seem to correspond to the rhetorical moves that we’ve seen deployed or described in this unit. 

Im looking for a step-by-step process-analysis here. Break King Henrys speech down into a series of persuasive strategies that build upon one another. Explain how Henry step-by-step transforms his men over the course of this speech.

(Assignment length: approximately 1,000 words)

King Henrys Speech from the play, Henry V, by William Shakespeare

Note for citations: refer to specific line numbers given at right when you quote from King Henrys speech in your essays. Use MLA format for citing line numbers in-text, and a full MLA
citation of this speech