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Act 1, Scene 3
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Henry VI Part 2, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Ambition
Nobles vs. Commoners
Religion and Politics
Patriotism
Magic
Summary
Analysis
As Hume and the Duchess watch from above, the conjurers Margery Jourdain, Bolingbroke, and Southwell perform a ritual. A spirit ascends into view. Bolingbroke, reading from a paper, asks what will happen to the king, while Southwell writes down the responses. The spirit says: “The duke yet lives that Henry shall depose / But him outlive and die a violent death.” When Bolingbroke asks about Suffolk, the spirit says he’ll die “[b]y water.” When Bolingbroke asks about Somerset, the spirit says he should avoid “castles.” Bolingbroke banishes the spirit.
The appearance of a spirit reveals that, in the world of the play, magic and the supernatural are real. Yet all the spirit’s answers are vague and unhelpful. Its response to the question about Henry leaves ambiguous who will outlive whom and who will die a violent death. Similarly, dying “by water” could mean any number of things (such as by drowning or near a coastline, to name two examples), as could avoiding “castles.” In this way, the play counterintuitively suggests that magic is real but not helpful.
Active
Themes
York, Buckingham, and Stafford burst in with guards. York orders the conjurers arrested and calls up to the Duchess that Gloucester will no doubt reward her for her good actions. Guards lead away the conjurers, the Duchess, and Hume. York praises Buckingham’s scheme and then reads aloud Southwell’s transcript of the spirit’s responses, noting their unhelpful ambiguity. Buckingham volunteers to bring the news of the Duchess’s crimes to Henry, Margaret, and Gloucester, who are hawking in the countryside. York then summons a servant and orders him to invite Salisbury and Warwick to dinner.
