The Significance of Human Connections: Character of Henry V

Across a variety of topics and situations, interactions and relationships between individuals have an influence over many diverse aspects. The idea of searching for a connection to avoid isolation and produce meaningful relationships is known as human connection. Individuals who fail to maintain any connections may end up living a life much more isolated and dull. King Henry V depicts a variety of positive and negative interactions which can greatly impact individuals in different ways. Alternatively, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” portrays the power of emotions. Human connection is the force that motivates individuals to form a decision and act upon what they believe is the correct resolution. It is responsible for determining how one will interact and communicate with other people influencing how events will conclude.

A key factor that initiates an individual to take action is the relationship status between the individual and the other party involved. The status of the relationship can result in a bias towards the other party. Recently rising to the throne, King Henry V receives a gift from the Dauphin, delivered through a messenger, containing tennis balls which is received as a clear insult to the maturity of the king. Enraged with implications sent from the Dauphin, he tells the messenger “And tells the pleasant prince this mock of his / Hath turned his balls to gun-stones, and his soul / Shall stand sore charged for the wasteful vengeance” (Shakespeare 1.2.281-283). Furthermore, extending his original remark, “Tell you the Dauphin I am coming on / To venge me as I may, and to put forth / My rightful hand in a well-hallow’d cause” (1.2.291-293), which serves as a warning to the Dauphin of England’s insurmountable invasion. This situation illustrates an altered relationship that later affected the conflict between France and England. The Dauphin created a negative relationship with Henry V and immediately started with insults and mockery that bounced between the two individuals with nationwide influence. Dauphin’s actions can be attributed as attempting to protect his connections and avoid a world of emptiness what was the cause of the negative relationship. As a natural instinct to produce meaningful connections, someone considers as immature is still a potential threat to Dauphin’s well-established relationships. To prevent the new King of England from launching an attack, showing a difference in power and suppressing a new, unaware king would be crucial in avoiding an attack. Instead, this interaction caused Henry V to initiate an impulsive assault on France as a retaliation to Dauphin’s actions rather than producing a more peaceful solution to the outstanding concerns. Regardless of perspective, this event displays the ability to change upcoming events. It provides a reason for the involved individuals to selectively strive for an outcome that adversely affects their opponents which then influences outcomes. The conflicting relationship between Henry and the Dauphin, which is capable of improving or declining, affects the choices that determine the consequence of their actions.

Conversely, positive relationships also carry the ability to shift the choices of individuals. Henry sends his close ally, and uncle, Exeter to act as his messenger delivering his demands to the French King. His message, “From him, and thus he greats your majesty: / He wills you in the name of God almighty / That you divest yourself, and lay apart / The borrowed glories that by gift of heaven, / By law of nature and of nations, ‘longs / To him and to his heirs, namely, the crown,” (2.4.77-82), is delivered respectfully avoiding the immature mistakes that the Dauphin had made. The messenger position is traditionally seen as the safest position to maintain during a war due to the respected common courtesy around the position. It is seen as an extension of the king, which therefore must not be harmed. This implies that Henry V truly cares for Exeter as his loyal subject and beloved member of his family. Positive connections are then maintained through trust, loyalty, and integrity which further strengthens the relationship. Both situations show the importance behind the bias toward the positive or negative status involved in the relationship. If these biases did not exist, the course of events may have taken a completely different path. These interactions dictate which possible changes can occur that ultimately adjust the way we chose to interact with certain people along with the choices we make to achieve our desired goal.

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Although decisions can stem from the quality of relationships, emotions that are caused by other people can also play a role in determining subsequent effects. Connie is visited by a mysterious man calling himself Arnold Friend. He manages to break into the security of Connie’s mind causing her to become “so sick with fear that she could do nothing but listen” (Oates 8) allowing him to manipulate her moves into succumbing to his will. Her thoughts begin to invade her brain with the idea that “I'm not going to sleep in my bed again” (9) while Arnold continues to abuse his control determining that her house “is nothing but a cardboard box I can knock down any time” (9). This constant bombardment of changing states and emotions causes Connie to leave the safety of her house willingly. The fluctuations in different emotions caused by an outside source clouds judgments and can cause an individual to make poor choices. This external influence, or human interaction, can impact the success of actions or results. The choice that was made could result in either a happy or sad ending. A proper assessment could produce an entirely different situation compared to a decision made with fear or sadness blocking its clarity. It is another factor that can also determine how people will respond according to human connections. Accounting for the vast variety of reactions, emotions are a type of human nature with countless amounts of possibilities that can create a severe change in future possibilities.

The innate desire to avoid loneliness is the factor that provokes individuals into forming decisions and acting on what is believed to be the appropriate solution. This choice of decisions establishes the interactions between people which influences the conclusion of events.

Positive and negative relationships cause humans to gain a bias towards certain individuals that results in actions purposely carried out for, or against, that certain individual. Emotions occurring from an outside source due to the actions of another person can cloud judgment causing affected people to act impulsively and hastily. These aspects of human connection effectively control what we plan on doing and decide to do. The most trivial of tasks can originate from such a basic concept that sometimes it is overlooked. Without this concept, humanity would never flourish and the entire idea of decisions, outcomes, and destiny would be irrelevant.

Works Cited

1. Shakespeare, William. Henry V, Oxford University Press, 2015.
2. Oates, Joyce. “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Web. 10 Mar. 2003, https://www.cusd200.org/cms/lib/IL01001538/Centricity/Domain/361/oates_going.pdf