Episode 8 - Henry VI Part 2

Henry VI Part 2 deals with the immediate lead-up to the Wars of the Roses, with court intrigue and tons of backstabbing that results in the First Battle of St. Albans in 1455. Henry VI was an ineffectual king in the actual historical record, and Shakespeare's Henry is that to a 'T'---cuckolded by his wife and goaded into a civil war by his ill-seeming advisers, Henry's eventual downfall is telegraphed quite clearly in this play. He's surrounded by a cast of characters, from his various Dukes and Lords to his own wife, Queen Margaret, to his enemy Richard, Duke of York, to the rebel Jack Cade, who set wheels in motion toward their own separate goals that Henry could not stop on his best day. The lack of leadership from the throne leads to a power vacuum and shows the danger of "vaulting ambition" in the hands of men (and women) of loose morals.

Our discussion today touches on the various characters, the source and types of power---be it from kings or "The Commons"--- and the violent nature of this installment, as well as the general strengths of this play (our favourite of the minor tetralogy). And then, in Marriage Counselling this episode, The Bicks debate the topic: Who is the protagonist, the hero, the "good guy" in Henry VI Part 2?

Notes:

• It was not an Admiral from Star Wars that Lindsay thought Henry VI resembled; it was Grand Moff Tarkin. (Lindsay will commence with the cone of shame now...)