Honor is very important in Shakespeare, but not everyone is trustworthy and honorable. There are some who keep their word and there are others who cannot be trusted at all. Prince Harry is a great example of an honorable young prince because he has to make difficult personal choices that an aspiring king must make to rule a nation. Then there are Falstaff and King Henry IV who were not as honourable. They all have a different concept of honor and Prince Harry is at the top of the three. Falstaff has no chance of being the most honorable because he is lazy, selfish, dishonest, and manipulative. These characteristics are not honorable in any way and he would not be trustworthy enough to be noble and honorable. Falstaff thinks he is honorable but he is not honorable at all. So King Henry IV does not have the moral legitimacy he needs to truly be a leader and an honorable one. He is very capable of organizing things and is very energetic, which allows him to obtain the throne and be qualified as "honorable". Prince Harry is an honorable man but he must regain his honor from King Henry IV. Harry shows his honor through his "noble behavior" by stealthily giving up his honor to deceive the people of the town and gain their trust and the friendship of Campbell 2, so when he ascends the throne the people will appreciate him more. He is a very complicated character in this play and wastes a lot of his time with Falstaff earning the pleasure of both his father and England. He comes out of nowhere and surprises England by declaring that his debauched lifestyle is all a sham and that he is only trying to lower the expectations of the people around him so he can reveal his true heroic knowledge and... half of sheet...the whole play. The characters all have their own different values and goals which is why Falstaff can be lazy and dishonest, but can still be considered honorable in his own way. This also goes down well with King Henry IV and his son Prince Harry too. King Henry arranges an assassination for Richard II just so he can take over the throne, yet he is still considered honorable and people see him as a great leader and admire him. Then there is Prince Harry, he has to regain his honor from the king and throughout the play he shows how he is transforming from a lowly bum, who he pretends to be to become an honorable and noble leader. Each character displays their honor in different ways in the game. Shakespeare does this on purpose to make the reader engage further with the characters in his story and understand them all a little better.
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