Henry IV Part II - Fathers and Sons

As mentioned earlier, Carol and I saw Shakespearenyc's production of Henry IV, Part II this past Wednesday night after seeing Part I about 10 days earlier. In my second post on the first play I briefly mentioned how Part I has a lot of content about fathers and sons. In fact this is true of both plays.

Back in 2003 I took a graduate level course at Montclair State on the history plays which was my first in depth reading of these plays in years. When I read Part I I was struck by the famous confrontation between Hal and his father. This is the scene that follows after the great tavern scene where Hal and Falstaff act out what it is going to be like when Hal faces his father at the court. For all the laughter in the tavern scene, the next scene cannot be enjoyable to Hal as his father basically chews him up one side and down the other.

By this time in my own life I had lived out the son's role and also the father's role. That is, I had been on both the receiving and giving end of such chewings out. Although in the play we are aware that Hal's wild side is primarily play acting what permeates the scene is a father not being quite sure of whether his son will measure up and the son trying to defend himself. In the BBC version when John Finch accuses David Gwillian of basically being on the rebels side, the shocked outrage in Gwillian's face is evident as he says -"Do not think it so, you shall not find it so!"

In spite of Hal's performance on the battlefield at Shrewsbury, Hal is still under the same cloud in Part II. This is most evident in the famous death bed scene where Hal walks off with the crown in the mistaken belief that his father is dead. Understandably Henry is outraged leading to another vicious verbal attack on his son - "Couldst thou not forbear me half an hour." This is after saying to Hal's brothers - "Son's what things you are." When we saw the Lincoln Center production in 2003 with Kevin Kline as Falstaff there was a noticeable murmer throughout the audience when Henry spoke those lines.

Hal's response, of course, restores him to his father's favor so that Henry can give his son his last words of advice. In the BBC version when David Gwillian (Hal) starts defending himself, the look on John Finch's face (Henry IV) said to me - "here I was so sure I was right, I was wrong and now I have been so cruel to my son." I am confident that I am not the other father who had those same feelings on at least one occasion. Jumping to a conclusion only to be proven wrong and to bitterly regret what I said. Parenthood gives us a lot of power - almost arbitrary power, years later memory and hindsight can generate a lot of guilt about how that power was used or perhaps mis-used.

Similarly in that version when Henry does die, the look on Hal's face is one of - "I knew this would come, but now the reality really hits home." I saw this version sometime after my own father died in November of 2002 and I could identify with the look on Gwilian's face as soon as saw it. I am not trying to exaggerate the change, but there is a change, if nothing else becoming the older generation, the holder of the family's history and tradition. I probably said this before, but it shows why these plays are so timeless, they can be read or heard on many levels and the issues are still relevant and will always be relevant.