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Definition of Motif
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of related symbols, help develop the central themes of a book... read full definition
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of related symbols, help develop the... read full definition
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of... read full definition
Prologue
Explanation and Analysis—The Ocean:
The ocean serves as a prominent motif throughout Henry V, highlighting the fact that Britain is an island that is separated from its neighbors by water. In the opening lines of the play, the Chorus asks the audience to imagine England and France as
two mighty monarchies,
Whose high uprearèd and abutting fronts
The perilous narrow ocean parts asunder.
The Chorus notes that, despite their longstanding enmity, all that separates Britain and France is a “narrow ocean,” or in other words, the English Channel. Later in the play, King Henry again references the ocean while readying his troops for battle:
Disguise fair nature with hard-favored rage,
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect,
Let it pry through the portage of the head
Like the brass cannon, let the brow o’erwhelm it
As fearfully as doth a gallèd rock
O’erhang and jutty his confounded base
Swilled with the wild and wasteful ocean
He invokes naval warfare here, commanding his troops to assume a fearful look. Their eyes, he states, must be like cannons shooting out over the sea, and their brows must look down “fearfully” like a dislodged rock that juts out over the “wasteful ocean."
In another instance of this ocean motif, the Bishop of Canterbury speaks of England as having a proud history of military accomplishments that is as “rich” as “the ooze and bottom of the sea / With sunken wrack and sumless treasuries.” The Bishop’s reference to the sea here brings together a number of contrasting associations: danger and opportunity, destruction and riches.
Related Themes:
Act 2, Prologue
Explanation and Analysis—Clothing :
One notable motif throughout the play is clothing—in particular, the way that clothing reflects or disguises identity. At the onset of the war with France, the Chorus describes the mobilization of English society by first describing the changes of fashion:
Now all the youth of England are on fire,
And silken dalliance in the wardrobe lies;
Now thrive the armorers, and honor’s thought
Reigns solely in the breast of every man.
Those of fighting age have left behind “silken” or delicate clothing in place of the functional armor of soldiers. Consequently, the nation's armorers “thrive” under these conditions. King Henry himself dons the armor of an ordinary soldier in order to pass among the English army without being recognized. When speaking with his own troops, he reflects further upon the complex relationship between clothing and identity. Describing the figure of the “King,” he states:
His ceremonies laid by, in his nakedness he appears but a man, and though his affections are higher mounted than ours, yet when they stoop, they stoop with the like wing.
Stripped of his ceremonial garb, a King “in his nakedness” is “but a man,” not noticeably different from any other, as Henry has already proven by successfully concealing his own identity. The King states that what distinguishes a King from any other man is not any innate characteristic, nor superior qualities, but rather his clothing. The quality of Kingship, he implies, lies in the superficial trappings of the role, not any inherent properties of the man who occupies it.
Related Themes:
Act 3, Scene 1
Explanation and Analysis—The Ocean:
The ocean serves as a prominent motif throughout Henry V, highlighting the fact that Britain is an island that is separated from its neighbors by water. In the opening lines of the play, the Chorus asks the audience to imagine England and France as
two mighty monarchies,
Whose high uprearèd and abutting fronts
The perilous narrow ocean parts asunder.
The Chorus notes that, despite their longstanding enmity, all that separates Britain and France is a “narrow ocean,” or in other words, the English Channel. Later in the play, King Henry again references the ocean while readying his troops for battle:
Disguise fair nature with hard-favored rage,
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect,
Let it pry through the portage of the head
Like the brass cannon, let the brow o’erwhelm it
As fearfully as doth a gallèd rock
O’erhang and jutty his confounded base
Swilled with the wild and wasteful ocean
He invokes naval warfare here, commanding his troops to assume a fearful look. Their eyes, he states, must be like cannons shooting out over the sea, and their brows must look down “fearfully” like a dislodged rock that juts out over the “wasteful ocean."
In another instance of this ocean motif, the Bishop of Canterbury speaks of England as having a proud history of military accomplishments that is as “rich” as “the ooze and bottom of the sea / With sunken wrack and sumless treasuries.” The Bishop’s reference to the sea here brings together a number of contrasting associations: danger and opportunity, destruction and riches.
Related Themes:
Act 4, Scene 1
Explanation and Analysis—Clothing :
One notable motif throughout the play is clothing—in particular, the way that clothing reflects or disguises identity. At the onset of the war with France, the Chorus describes the mobilization of English society by first describing the changes of fashion:
Now all the youth of England are on fire,
And silken dalliance in the wardrobe lies;
Now thrive the armorers, and honor’s thought
Reigns solely in the breast of every man.
Those of fighting age have left behind “silken” or delicate clothing in place of the functional armor of soldiers. Consequently, the nation's armorers “thrive” under these conditions. King Henry himself dons the armor of an ordinary soldier in order to pass among the English army without being recognized. When speaking with his own troops, he reflects further upon the complex relationship between clothing and identity. Describing the figure of the “King,” he states:
His ceremonies laid by, in his nakedness he appears but a man, and though his affections are higher mounted than ours, yet when they stoop, they stoop with the like wing.
Stripped of his ceremonial garb, a King “in his nakedness” is “but a man,” not noticeably different from any other, as Henry has already proven by successfully concealing his own identity. The King states that what distinguishes a King from any other man is not any innate characteristic, nor superior qualities, but rather his clothing. The quality of Kingship, he implies, lies in the superficial trappings of the role, not any inherent properties of the man who occupies it.
Related Themes:
