Loyalty in Othello Essays

Loyalty in Othello Essays Loyalty in Othello Essay Loyalty in Othello Essay Essay Topic: Othello The concept of order in HENRY V The concept of order in William Shakespeare’s â€Å"Henry V† is central to the play as a whole and this is demonstrated through the events, principal characters and themes of the play. Though Henry V is one of the Bard’s history plays, it is more especially a play that brings insight into the question of what part order and disorder play in a society. The first time we are introduced to the centrality of order in the play is in Act I, scene 2 when Exeter compares the need for order in society to the need for order in music. For government, though high, though low, and lower†¦doth keep in one consent†¦like music. † The analogy is effective in that it communicates the message to Shakespeare’s audience that the enjoyment of music, like the enjoyment of society, depends on its order. Harmony in society, Exeter is asserting, is comparable to order in music The next very effective display of the importance of order as being essential to the play is when the Archbishop of Canterbury delivers his parable on the bee hive. He makes the very pointed claim that honeybees â€Å"by a rule in nature teach/the act or order to a peopled kingdom. † This speech can be interpreted in a variety of ways, but the central idea is clear: the structure of the honeybee society with its dependency on the hierarchical nature of the monarch and the workers, is akin to the Elizabethan society that cannot survive or thrive without its allegiance to its monarch and the structures within the monarchy. Canterbury’s speech develops the idea further when he makes the parallel to the rightful use of war when the society needs to be reinforced to order. He notes that the soldier bees go about their business of protecting the realm while the monarch passively watches, merely â€Å"busied in his monarchy†. It is here where the character of Henry V himself embodies order Henry does not content himself with idly allowing his soldier bees to accomplish their task, but he engages in the reinforcing of order himself even against the urging of the archbishop to partition England so that the king can leave with his army in his campaign against France. But Henry refuses to create division even in the midst of the disorder that seems to be encroaching on his plans for order: the conspiracy of Cambridge, Scroop, and Grey; the interplay of the thieves Pistol, Bardolph, and Nym who defy Henrys order that nothing is to be stolen from France; and William’s muted threat of insubordination when he challenges the Kings â€Å"cause. † Even Katherine poses a threat to Henry’s passion for order when she clearly holds the potential to refuse him her womanly duties and thereby thwart his plans to unite the two kingdoms. Throughout Henry V Shakespeare poses order as a central concept for his Elizabethan audience and allows the historical events of Henry’s campaign against France and his symbolic marriage to the princess of France to be the vehicle to communicate the concept. As a result, the concept of order is central to the play as a whole as is evident in the events, the principal characters and in the major themes of the drama.