In Henry V, Shakespeare uses the Chorus to inform the audience about what is happening in the story. In this play however, the Chorus makes more appearances in Henry V than it did in the previous plays, being mentioned six times in the play, while the others had a mere two mentions or even three. Obviously, the Chorus in Henry V has a much stronger role than its previous predecessors. In Henry V, the Chorus’s role isn’t different than what it really is, which is to help the audience understand the story and keep track of what is going on. The different role it has is because of the multiple times it appears in the play itself. The Chorus is tasked to inform the reader in the beginning of each act, because this play is really heavy and the reader can lose their train of thought. In the previous plays, the chorus would just give the prologue and epilogue of the play and some occasions where it was important to have context on a set scene. Technically, the Chorus is spoiling does spoil the plot to the audience, but back then the audience wasn’t interested in this fact, so they kept on watching.
In the beginning of the play and throughout the play the Chorus is constantly apologizing to the audience. They are apologizing to the audience because of the limitations of the stage where the play is taking place. While in the play we have thousands of warriors and great battles set in open land, the theatre itself barely houses a hundred people, so they ask the audience to use their imagination to fully experience what is happening in the play. They do this with their colorful commentary, as seen when the Chorus is praising King Henry V for waging a war with France or when they apologize to the audience, so that the chorus isn’t seen as lazy and irresponsible.
The literary devices that are used a lot when the Chorus speaks are metaphor and wordplay. Metaphor is a figure of speech which is used to compare an object or action with something that wouldn’t be associated normally and wordplay which is the exploitation of meaning and the ambiguities of words, a case being the use of puns. Shakespeare is quite famous for his wordplay throughout his work, so it isn’t a surprise that it is also in this play too. The use of metaphor by the Chorus helps in revealing major details about King Henry’s character. In this line “Following the mirror of all Christian kings (II.Prolo.6)”, the Chorus believes that the King is a mirror that reflects the values of England as a kingdom, with all its citizens looking up to Henry V. Another example would be the prologue to act 4, where Henry V visits his soldiers in an attempt to cheer them on for the war.
In these lines, the Chorus compares Henry to the sun, as a metaphor that he is a light that shines through the darkness of the kingdom. Like the warmth that the sunlight gives us, Henry V does the same to his soldiers, who are depressed from these wars. The Chorus also references Phoebus, which is another name for Apollo, the Greek God of the Sun. They compare Phoebus to Henry V because of his godlike qualities that Henry seems to possess, as seen in these lines “Embark his royalty, and his brave fleet, / With silken streamers the young Phoebus fanning.”(III.Prolo.5-6). King Henry is seen as a god and the English troops are ready to follow Henry wherever he goes, even if they have to surrender their lives to the war.
Shakespeare also gives the Chorus the ability to wordplay with the message that it means to portray. This helps in engaging and enhancing the interest of the audience, so that they don’t lose focus in some parts of the play. Shakespeare was known to play with words, which is also one of the reasons that the dictionary had many new words at the time, due to Shakespeare creating new variations of words. The Chorus informs the audience about a plot to kill Henry V, who have been paid by the French. And there isn’t a chance missed to do some wordplay, when the Chorus mixes the words guilt and gilt, as seen in these lines “Have, for the gilt of France (O guilt indeed!), / Confirmed conspiracy with fearful France…” (II.Prolo.26-27). The pun in these lines relies on the words guilt and gilt; gilt being used to pay off assassins. The Chorus also uses wordplay to directly grapple the attention of the audience itself, asking them to imagine King Henry sailing to France with his soldiers. They use the audience’s imagination to make the play feel natural, due to the limitations of the stage, since a boat can’t sail on dry wood, as seen in this line “Grapple your minds to sternage of this navy,” (III.Prolo.19). Here the chorus plays with the world grapple, which are used in ships to hook to other ships and they are trying to do the same thing, hooking the audience’s imagination with the play. And finally, the last example of wordplay takes place in the prologue of Act 5, after the war has ended and everyone in England is awaiting their king. Here the Chorus uses the word “flood” to describe both the setting and the many people waiting for Henry, also helping the figure of Henry V now being loved and welcomed to his beloved kingdom.
To sum up, the role of the Chorus is undoubtedly a must have for creating a play and in the right hands, the Chorus could be even better than the play itself. It adds a lot of meaning and enjoyment to this play with the use of metaphor and wordplay. This play wouldn’t even feel the connection between the audience and itself, because from the start the Chorus asked them to imagine the scenes that were happening, something that couldn’t be done due to limitations of the stage. If a play doesn’t require the reader to think, that means that it has already failed its true purpose: Getting the reader or the audience to think about it.
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