Katy Fornas
English 339
Valiancy[SM1] and Vulnerability in the Shakespearean Soldier
In many plays and histories, soldiers are represented as one-dimensional courageous, heroic beings. In Othello and Henry V, soldiers are portrayed in a more multi-faceted sense in that they have both an aggressive side and a vulnerable side to their characters. We are introduced to Othellos dangerous past when he recounts stories that he has told about his life saying, I spake of most disastrous chances,/ Of moving accidents by flood and field;/ Of hairbreath scapes I the imminent deadly breach (1.3 134-6). The stories of Othellos past cause us as readers to see him as brave and heroic. This is further reinforced by others accounts of Othello as a warlike Moor and brave (2.1 27, 38[SM2]). In concurrence to Othello as a soldier displaying Herculean ideals, we see soldiers in Henry V depicted in the same valiant nature. Once scene uses choice heroic words to describe people becoming soliders and going to war:
Now all the youth of England are on fire,/ And silken dalliance in the wardrobe lies;/ Now thrive the armorers, and honors thought/ Reins solely in the breast of every man./ They sell the pasture now, to buy the horse;/ Following the mirror of all Christian kings/ With wingd heels, as English Mercuries. (2.Cho 1-7)
Descriptive words such as fire, honor, breast, and horse used in the above passage become vivid war-like images in our minds and further exemplify the aggressive nature of the soldier. This notion of the valiant is reiterated when in speaking to his soldiers, Henry V compares soldiers to tigers and speaks of the honor that the soldiers will bring to their parents (3.1 6, 22-3). However [SM3]brave these warriors are described, Shakespeare takes the dimensions of soldierhood one step father than most by exposing soldiers vulnerabilities. In the case of the soldier Othello, his love for his wife and his unwarranted jealousy caused by an unethical soldier, Iago, prove to be his weaknesses and cause him to kill his wife and himself. The manner in which he kills his wife, by smothering her while she sleeps, is truly unbecoming of any traditional soldier[SM4]. The vulnerability of Othello is further described in his last words before he commits suicide as he speaks of himself as, one that lovd not wisely, but too well;/ of one whose subdud eyes, / Albeit unused to the melting mood,/ Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees (5.2 343, 348-50[SM5]). The shortcomings of being a soldier[SM6] are revealed in Henry V when Williams, a soldier, states, I am afeard there are few die well that die in a battle; for how can they charitably dispose of anything when blood is their argument? (4.1 143-6). The Kings earlier speech of the tiger-like soldier is contrasted by his stark recap of the battle when he says of his soldiers, We are but warriors for the working day;/ Our gayness and our gilt are all besmirched/ With rainy marching in the painful field./ Theres not a piece of feather in our host/ (4.3 109-112). The dreariness of the actuality of a soldiers plight harshly differs from the earlier notion of gallant soldiers rising up to battle[SM7]. In these ways, Shakespeare exposes the many sides of the nature of being a soldier[SM8].
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[SM1]Valor
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[SM2]Good
evidence
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[SM3]new
paragraph
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[SM4]good
detail
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[SM5]nice
evidence to reinforce your point
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[SM6]the quote
says it but it would be good to mention the acknowledgement that war in general
is a bloody ugly business
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[SM7]great
observation
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[SM8]Kathya
lovely job at discovering many less than obvious examples of the fundamental
contradiction that underlies the play and all forms of glorifying military
action. And if the cause be just
A