The Chorus

To build on what we already discussed in class, I’d like to take the Chorus of Henry V into consideration.  It is both unique and brilliant in which the way Shakespeare initially uses the Chorus in this play—having the members apologize to the audience for any inaccuracies that will occur while attempting to recreate authentic settings/plots within the confined area of the stage.  By doing this, Shakespeare uses a transition into the play itself, while simultaneously giving the audience additional responsibility and immedietely captivating their attention.  Before Act 2, the Chorus again offers apologies for innacuracy and serves a transition, however I am still not entirely sure as to why they claim the play will shift to Southampton, when it actually shifts to London…exact purpose; intention?  I know we spoke about this in class but it is still unclear to me.  Moving on, the Chorus in Act 3 seems rather different than the aforementioned appearances.   There is the use of alarm and cannon sounds in the background—I thought that this was noteworthy as it clearly defines a difference in the Chorus and would be extremely effective to further captivate the audience, though I wonder how it was done during that time period.  Also, the Chorus in Act 3 actually tells the truth (in rather great detail) of the upcoming scene, rightfully depicting the King and his men arriving at Harfleur and using cannons.

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3 Responses to The Chorus

  1. erica.lin says:

    I agree that the Chorus was being used as a mechanism to help move the plot along and base the audience in new locations without it being too confusing and skipping along. However, i also had not realize that it added more then to serve as a transition. I did not like the propaganda, mostly because its hard to recognize and simply knowing that it is propaganda makes one change their perception of the war, of the play. Now recognizing that the Chorus is serving as a juxtaposition to the scenes that follow it, you can truly see the difference between whats being said and what is truly happening. At first, I did not appreciate the Chorus: i thought it broke down the 4th wall in a play and sabotaged the suspension of disbelief, but now i see that the Chorus actually has more value then just a transitory property. (although may be more clear in the play then in the script, as always)

  2. Andy says:

    Thanks Eric and Erica for pointing out interesting comments about the Chorus.

    The Chorus definitely serves an important purpose in the play. I thought the Chorus did a good job in setting the tone for the scenes at the beginning of each act they appear in. Act II is about deceit and revolves around how to deal with betrayal and the Chorus “lies” to us. The Chorus speaks about how all of the “youth of England are on fire” but in the next scene, we see a bunch of guys from the “streets” who are NOT preparing to fight a war for their country.

  3. PBerggren says:

    Perhaps it’s only at the end of the play that the Chorus stops playing at public relations. The last lines are quite devastating: all this bloodshed ultimately went for nothing.

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