Where I Liked Joan Best

Henry VI, Part 1 by William Shakespeare
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As with other of Shakespeare's history plays (none of which did I read until recently) I found this an entertaining read. I'm not sure what it'd look like on stage, but there's lots of drama and movement and strangeness. I liked it.

This is the one with Joan of Arc, and although we're supposed to hate her, I thought she was a cool character. The most memorable, for sure. And the scene where her personal demon friend blows her off and refuses to help her anymore would probably be the most fun to watch in the whole play. It's a shame she had to be a villain for the English to be heroes; I would have rather seen her be awesome as well as entirely heroic, but I don't think Elizabethan audiences were ready for seeing their enemies as people like themselves...

The battle stuff is pretty fun, and the heroic death of Talbot and his son is very affecting. To some degree, he was the hero of the story, and Joan was the antihero. We could have had a whole play about either one of them. Young Henry VI wasn't all that central. As a result, with the Talbots dead and Joan martyred at the stake, we're left looking for an ending with someone else. The story kind of peters out, though it at least concludes with wedding plans, which feels like an ending.

None of the histories, IMO, have a really strong or straightforward story arc, owing to the reluctance of nature to provide us with neatly planned rising action and major crisis and falling action and denouement the way we'd like it to, the way my 10th grade teacher laid it out--but the story is sorta told that way, and I think it works. I have read that some consider this Shakespeare's weakest play, and all I can say is that there's a bunch I liked less, so go figure.

On to part 2.

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I'm Not Sure Why I Liked It, But I Did

Henry IV, Part 2 by William Shakespeare
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This (like all of Shakespeare's histories) is more interesting and entertaining than I expected it would be. Especially reading with aids--for this, I read from the No Fear Shakespeare edition--I could plow straight through and didn't have to spend a lot of time struggling with meaning. That makes it easier to enjoy, for sure. And it's got that great line about "heavy the head that wears the crown" and stuff.

Having said all that, I don't think it's an awesome story; not much actually happens, to start with, and I don't find the funny parts that funny. I understand a lot of people, including theatre-goers of the time, really like Falstaff, and find him amusing, and I sorta get it, but I don't join them. (I bet they sold this as "Falstaff Part II" back in the day.) I would have liked to see him do something good and become a better man rather than still be a jerk at the end, taking advantage of people and being a terrible soldier. But I guess this allowed Shakespeare to show that Henry was a screwup at first, like Falstaff, but pulled it together when he needed to be a leader, casting off the bad influences of his youth. That makes the story largely about his growth, and I bet you could write a pretty good 5-paragraph essay about the way Hal changes. Glad I don't hand out those essays anymore...

Anyway, kinda fun. Kinda disjointed. A bit amusing in places, but for my money not *that* funny. I liked the serious parts best, actually.

YMMV.

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