Quote:
Originally Posted by Timmy
Yeah, there's that. Still. Was the figurative mass destruction of zillions of people and animals really necessary?  |
Considering that over time, the "zillions" would all end up dead anyway and we'd be left wondering what purpose they served even under those conditions...
Remember Shakespeare's Henry V? The play starts with the machinations of the clergy about how to weasel Henry's claim to the French throne into a more favorable light. Then there is a look at how war has affected some troops loyal to "Hal" in the past and the awful consequences of the martial life.
Then we have a complex interplay of international relations followed by the basest treason and the attempted murder of the Royal Person Himself! And all of that is just to set up the terrible march in the rain to Le Harve in France
("No king of England, if not king of France!" cries Henry at one point), the brutal siege and horrible loss of life
("Once more into the breech!"). Then another grueling march to Agincourt and the terrible slaughter there.
Next, we find Henry giving his terms to his uncle, the King of France as he woos his cousin the princess. He gets everything he wanted by marriage! There was no need for the war at all (a part of the 100 Years' War)!
Then the chorus updates us on the events following Henry V's career and the birth of his son who was crowned King of England and France!
... France recovers, retakes Paris and the entire country - in a single fell swoop all of the drama, the intrigue and the terrible costs of war are all wiped clean from the slate and the audience is left to ask,
"What was the point of all this fighting to begin with?"
"Thus far, with rough and all-unable pen,
Our bending author hath pursued the story,
In little room confining mighty men,
Mangling by starts the full course of their glory.
Small time, but in that small most greatly lived
This star of England: Fortune made his sword;
By which the world's best garden be achieved,
And of it left his son imperial lord.
Henry the Sixth, in infant bands crown'd King
Of France and England, did this king succeed;
Whose state so many had the managing,
That they lost France and made his England bleed:
Which oft our stage hath shown; and, for their sake,
In your fair minds let this acceptance take."
...
A "sound and fury, signifying nothing?" ...
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