Henry VI, Part 1 by William Shakespeare
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Oh goodness. I think it's time for me to be a bit annoyed, not that the play as bad in any way, because as a piece of fiction it fits its times, plays up to the prejudices of its people, makes good story out of a horribly contradictory piece of history, and blatantly evokes imagery that didn't come into service until.. oh, wait... the imagery of the red and white roses started here? Oh. Yeah. I guess this WAS a propaganda piece! :)

After all, Joan of Arc is a lying piece of trash who'd slutted her way across France and summoned dark demons under the earth to fight her battles, and that's in NO WAY influenced by popular sentiment. Absolutely Not.

And Henry VI himself truly was an effeminate pansy without a passionate or a cunning bone in his body, reliant upon the minds and contradictory wills of his lords Suffolk and York to make any decisions at all except the ones that gave away all his lands and titles in an attempt to bribe loyalty.

The king was a lot more subtle, book learned, and pious than was respected in the times, true, founding a college for christ's sake, but he was young and he let all these men dominate him because they were all alphas. It's tragic, but unfortunately common.

These are my complaints, but also, these are the kinds of things that make a drama, too. The focus naturally falls upon the other players.

Talbot and his son, however, was a great sequence from start to finish. Great drama. Horrible, too.

I had fun, even if I was cringing with all the inaccuracies and the stereotypes, lol. :)

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