Samarkand state institute of foreign languages faculty of english filology and translation studies department of language and translation

Conclusion on Chapter II
Henry IV, Part 1 has two main plots that intersect in a dramatic battle at the end of the play. The first plot concerns King Henry IV, his son, Prince Harry, and their strained relationship. The second concerns a rebellion that is being plotted against King Henry by a discontented family of noblemen in the North, the Percys, who are angry because of King Henry’s refusal to acknowledge his debt to them. The play’s scenes alternate between these two plot strands until they come together at the play’s end. When the play opens, military news interrupts the aging King Henry’s plans to lead a crusade. The Welsh rebel Glyndˆwr has defeated King Henry’s army in the South, and the young Harry Percy (nicknamed Hotspur), who is supposedly loyal to King Henry, is refusing to send to the king the soldiers whom he has captured in the North. King Henry summons Hotspur back to the royal court so that he can explain his actions.

Conclusion
The play's linking of different worlds through imagery is extended by the many ironic plot parallels of the play. Henry IV, Part One is structured so that the action ranges among several contrasting locations. This maintains pace and interest, but also suggests resonant connections between the activities and attitudes of very different people. The first three scenes of the play, for example, move from the court of King Henry to the tavern at Eastcheap and back to the court again. In scene one Henry talks about both his son and Hotspur, setting up expectations which can be assessed in more depth as we meet those characters in the next two scenes. In I.2 Falstaff and Poins urge Hal to join the Gadshill plot, and at the end of I.3 Northumberland and Worcester urge Hotspur to join with them in the plot against the king. The juxtaposition of these scenes brings out significant contrasts of character (note Hal's caution as opposed to Hotspur's impetuosity) and, at the same time, makes subtle connection between the rebellion and the robbery. The Carriers' scene follows I.3, with more talk of preying on the commonwealth. Court, rebels and robbers are thus closely tied, and when Falstaff and his cronies rob the travelers at Gad's Hill, and then are robbed themselves, attentive audience members might even spot an echo of the king's own plight.
The action switches between court, rebels and revelers through the rest of Acts 2 and 3. Some obvious contrasts emerge, like that between Hal's mock interview with his father / Falstaff in 2.4 and his real interview in 3.2, and between Falstaff's embroidered tales in 2.4 and Glendower's Welsh fantasies in 3.1. But many less obvious comparisons can also be made: Hotspur's intimate teasing of his wife, Kate, in 2.3, is immediately followed by Hal's tormenting of the hapless Francis in 2.4. These private moments can convey a lot about Hal and Hotspur and the impact they have on those around them. Both reveal a measure of arrogance in these scenes, but the degrees of affection shown between Kate and Hotspur can vary enormously, while Hal's game with his admirer might reflect tipsy high-spirits, snobbish cruelty, or a more ironic consciousness of the link between apprentice king and apprentice tapster.
In Act 4 the various groups move towards the Shrewsbury battlefield and the pace quickens as scenes change swiftly between rival camps. In Act 5 the battle draws all the main figures of the play together for a climactic confrontation. The battle is not just about Hal and Hotspur, however. Our sense of the human lives and issues at stake is complicated by the additional stories told: stories of vividly realized characters like the compromised Vernon, earnest Blunt, and fiery Douglas. Momentarily we are reminded, too, of the fate of Falstaff's hundred-and-fifty "peppered" ragamuffins.
For Hal the battle is a rite of passage and his chance to fulfill the promise made to his father to redeem all this on Percy's head. Even before the fighting commences, Hal cuts an impressive figure, prompting his enemy, Vernon, to conclude, "England did never owe so sweet a hope, So much misconstrued in his wantonness". It seems England is in desperate need of such a hope. Worcester betrays his nephew and his men, Glendower hides in Wales, Northumberland stays home in bed, and Falstaff fakes his own death, while noble lords and ragamuffins are killed on their behalf. Hal rises above all this: he acquits himself bravely on the field, he saves his father's life, and he fights and kills Hotspur. By the end of the play Hal has shown that he can redeem the time he has wasted, whereas Hotspur is proven "time's fool." Hal has become the hero of the hour. Yet that "strangest fellow," Falstaff, survives, too, to win applause for making the most of the moment. Despite Hal's heroic achievements, work-a-day and holiday values still seem evenly, though uneasily, in balance.
At its conclusion Henry IV, Part One remains characteristically open-ended. As Henry divides his powers to march off and meet more rebels we are left to make our own judgments about what might have been lost and won so far. Shakespeare's dramatization of the reign of Henry IV shows that history is made up of many competing stories. The perspectives of Hal, Hotspur, Falstaff, King Henry and even of Francis or Kate can each be presented very persuasively. Like all dramatic texts Henry IV, Part One is ultimately a blueprint for performance: it is up to the actors and their audience to decide which history to tell.