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Pathos
Definition of Personification
Personification is a type of figurative language in which non-human things are described as having human attributes, as in the sentence, "The rain poured down on the wedding guests, indifferent... read full definition
Personification is a type of figurative language in which non-human things are described as having human attributes, as in the sentence, "The rain poured down... read full definition
Personification is a type of figurative language in which non-human things are described as having human attributes, as in the... read full definition
Key Examples in Henry V
Act 1, Scene 2
Explanation and Analysis—The Beehive as Kingdom:
Speaking before the King and a number of his most trusted advisors, the Archbishop personifies honeybees in a speech that turns to the natural world for a model of the ideal state:
Therefore doth heaven divide
The state of man in divers functions,
Setting endeavor in continual motion,
To which is fixèd as an aim or butt
Obedience; for so work the honeybees,
Creatures that by a rule in nature teach
They have a king and officers of sorts,
Where some like magistrates correct at home,
Others like merchants venture trade abroad,
Others like soldiers armèd in their stings
Make boot upon the summer’s velvet buds,
Which pillage they with merry march bring home
To the tent royal of their emperor,
Who, busied in his majesty, surveys
The singing masons building roofs of gold
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—England as Widow:
The Archbishop of Canterbury personifies England as a widow in his speech to King Henry V:
Unlock with LitCharts A+She hath been then more feared than harmed, my
liege,
For hear her but exampled by herself:
When all her chivalry hath been in France
And she a mourning widow of her nobles,
She hath herself not only well defended
But taken and impounded as a stray
The King of Scots, whom she did send to France
To fill King Edward’s fame with prisoner kings
And make her chronicle as rich with praise.
Related Themes:
Act 2, Scene 4
Explanation and Analysis—This Hungry War:
The Duke of Exeter, uncle to King Henry V, employs vivid imagery in a speech to the King of France:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Deliver up the crown and to take mercy
On the poor souls for whom this hungry war
Opens his vasty jaws, and on your head
Turning the widows’ tears, the orphans’ cries,
The dead men’s blood, the privèd maidens’
groans,
For husbands, fathers, and betrothèd lovers
That shall be swallowed in this controversy.
Related Themes:
Act 5, Scene 2
Explanation and Analysis—Contending Kingdoms:
After the French army has been soundly defeated by Henry’s troops, the King of France personifies the nations of France and England as two squabbling individuals:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Take her, fair son, and from her blood raise up
Issue to me, that the contending kingdoms
Of France and England, whose very shores look pale
With envy of each other’s happiness,
May cease their hatred, and this dear conjunction
Plant neighborhood and Christian-like accord
In their sweet bosoms.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Peace:
Following the surprising defeat of the French army by the outnumbered English troops, the French Duke of Burgundy personifies the abstract concept of peace as a woman:
Unlock with LitCharts A+...[L]et it not disgrace me
If I demand before this royal view
What rub or what impediment there is
Why that the naked, poor, and mangled peace,
Dear nurse of arts, plenties, and joyful births,
Should not in this best garden of the world,
Our fertile France, put up her lovely visage?
Alas, she hath from France too long been chased,
And all her husbandry doth lie on heaps,
Corrupting in its own fertility.
Related Themes:
