Being Themselves in Henry IV
01 November 2025
Class: Literature Tutorial — Fall 2025
Henry IV is not the subject of the play that is named after him. The play is about duty. About how two men, King Henry IV and his son, Prince Hal, have failed to live their vocation not just as a king and a prince or as a father, son, and brother, but to truth and justice. These characters, when pushed to the brink by circumstance, will acknowledge their faults and commit to doing their duty, or as they put it, to being themselves.
In Act 1, Scene 1, King Henry sets up the play as a comparison between the two characters by wishing it could be proven that the two Henrys had been swapped at birth, and that Hotspur was really his son and Hal was Northumberland's son. The King and Prince Hal, through their manner of speech, prove to the reader the opposite. Prince Hal and the King both make statements about how they intend to go forward being themselves. This manner of speech is unique to them and shows the similarities between father and son.
In Act 1, Scene 3, line 5, the King states, "I will from henceforth rather be myself." He is lamenting that he has not exercised the full royal power and has shown too much generosity and leniency. Now he feels betrayed by those with whom he has been lenient and generous. The King intends to exercise henceforth the full royal power to be "mighty and feared" that he might be more respected as King. It is a sort of Greek tragedy. The King avoided exercising the full royal power because he was weak and wanted to prevent rebellion, but his failure to do so betrayed his weakness and prompted the rebellion. The King must be the King. He must be himself.
The King uses this phrase, "be myself," to mean exercising the full royal prerogative, but Hal, I think, means something more profound. In Act 3, Scene 2 ~ line 95, Prince Hal states, "I shall hereafter, my thrice gracious lord, Be more myself." The King has just given Prince Hal a dressing down for his rakish ways, and Henry has promised to put aside such things and join the King's army to defeat the Percy family rebellion. To understand The King's disappointment with Prince Hal, we must consider his relationship with Falstaff, a false father figure who contrasts with King Henry.
Prince Hal has been associating with the knight John Falstaff, who is old enough to be Hal's father. Together, along with their other companions, they have been brigands, drunkards, and whore mongers. It is this life of vice that Prince Hal must overcome when he says that he will be himself. In Act 1, Prince Hal gives a soliloquy in which he says that someday he will be a great and noble man. He says, "Yet herein will I imitate the sun". Now, in Act 3, Scene 2, he says that someday is now.
In both cases, the men recognize a failure in themselves to do what is required of them fully, and they intend to go forward differently. This ability to recognize the fault in oneself and intend to go on differently betrays their similarities. This shared phrase reveals a deep similarity in their character and speech. The King's failure to be himself has brought his reign and the kingdom itself to the edge of ruin. Hal's failure risks the same. This failure is not a failure to self-actualize or to enjoy an embarrassing hobby in the way a modern person might when they talk about being themselves. The King and Prince Hal are after something more profound. As monarchs of England and Wales, they have been called upon by God to perform a sacred duty, and they have failed. Their failure to be themselves is a failure to be the men God has called them to be.
It is also not just their sacred roles as monarchs that they have neglected. Their duties to each other as father and son have failed. John Falstaff is old enough to be Hal's father and even plays at being the King in a barroom mockery. This impression prompts Prince Hal to do his own impersonation of the King. The scene is played for laughs, but it reveals that Hal relies on his vicious companions to train and prepare him for Kingship, rather than on the example set by his own father. When Prince Hal promises to be more himself, just as his father has sworn to be more himself, this relationship also starts to heal. Prince Hal is following in the example of the true King, not of Falstaff, the false knight, who plays at being a king for laughs.
King Henry IV's throne, usurped from Richard II, is weakened by the Percy rebellion and a disputed claim. When he vows, "I will from henceforth rather be myself" (Act 1, Scene 3, line 5), he asserts his legitimacy, proclaiming himself the true King by wielding the full royal authority he previously avoided. Similarly, Prince Hal's promise, "I shall hereafter, my thrice gracious lord, Be more myself" (Act 3, Scene 2, line 95), responds to his father's rebuke, signaling his commitment to abandon his reckless life with Falstaff and embrace his princely duty. These parallel vows reconcile the King to his divine role, the Prince to the King, and the son to the father, laying the foundation for Hal's transformation into King Henry V. When the King says "I will from henceforth rather be myself", my eyes read "I will from henceforth rather be myself," but what my heart feels the King to be saying is: I am the true King, and when Prince Hal says, "I shall hereafter, my thrice gracious lord, Be more myself." I want to believe that the King's heart hears: I am your true son, and I will not disappoint you. This phrase of being oneself reconciles a king to God, a prince to a king, and a son to a father. If in either scene a different turn of phrase had been used, we would not have this reconciliation. Without this reconciliation, we do not have the basis of Prince Hal's transformation into King Henry V.
Hotspur, at the beginning of the story, is recognized for his nobility and prowess in battle, but he loses not just his reputation but also his life when he rebels against the King. At the beginning of the story, Prince Hal has a low reputation but begins a process of redemption when he submits to the King. The King is initially weak but becomes strong when he submits to the duties of the crown and gains the confidence to wield full royal power, or, as the King describes it, when he starts to be himself.
At the conclusion of the play, the King and the Prince reenact the opening of the play, but as their true selves. The rebellion starts because the Percy family will not hand over the Scottish rebel Douglas, whom they had taken prisoner in battle. In the Battle of Shrewsbury, Douglas is captured again, this time by the forces of Prince Hal, who asks his father for permission to decide Douglas's fate himself. The King has already ordered several other prisoners to be executed. The King grants Prince Hal this request. Prince Hal gives his brother Lancaster the honor of going to Douglas and telling him that he will be set free without ransom. The King does not object to this course of action.
That Prince Hal does not demand a ransom from Douglas is not what we would expect from a man who was robbing pilgrims for drinking money at the start of the play. The King's behavior, though, is more difficult to understand. I cannot tell if he is unwilling to use the full royal authority on his son or if something about Hal has changed such that the King does not feel a need to use the full royal authority on him to prevent the Prince from freeing an important hostage. The Percy family, when asked to hand over their hostages, attempted to add stipulations; they tried to dictate terms to the King. Prince Hal did not show such disrespect when he asked for the ability to deal with Douglas as he pleased.
The King, at the beginning of the play, unwilling to wield his authority, was forced to. At the end of the play, having freshly used his royal authority to execute his captured enemies, he has no need to kill another. The King at the start of the play hopes for domestic peace and to go on crusade. At the end of the play, the King leads an army to put down a domestic rebellion. The King, as his true self, is transformed and willing to do his duty. Prince Hal is likewise transformed, but his duty is not one of executing traitors; his duty includes reconciling with his brother, as he has with his father. At the beginning of the play, Prince Hal robs and humiliates his friends and fellow gang members. At the end of the play, by granting his brother the honor of freeing the prisoner without ransom, he shows his brother that he is a new man.
The phrase be myself, said by both the Prince and the King, betrays that they understand their duties and how they have failed to live up to them. As both men seek to remedy these failures, they defeat their enemies, reconcile with each other, and forge new virtues with which to fight the battles still to come.