Power vs powerlessness

• 'I fear my brother Mortimer doth stir about his title and hath sent for you To line his enterprise' - Kate 'Constant you are But yet a women....Thou wilt not utter what thou dost know' - Hotspur (2.3)


  • private world of Hotspur & Lady Percy's relationship - chaos of politics intrudes on their marriage
  • Lady P shown to be perceptive but is ignored - royal world marginalises women's voices, even when they hold valuable insights
• Lady mortimer & Percy

  significance of women's political role
• 'Die all; die merrily' - Hotspur (4.1)


  • when higher classes fight amongst themselves it is the lower classes that suffer because of their orders
  • people in power are carless with other people's lives
  • those without power are left with no option but to accept the fate imposed upon them by the powerful
• Falstaff's army = 'the cankers of a calm world' who couldn't afford to pay him off - ‘good enough to toss; food for powder, food for powder’ - Falstaff (4.2) 


  • his immorality that was funny before is not anymore -  he fits in the tavern world but his actions become detrimental when he enters royal world - can cause real damage on people
  • overwhelmed by new sense of power - immediately abuses it - doesn't care about people he is exploiting, even openly boasts about it
  • Chaos created by war allows corruption to grow & breed & allows falstaff to exploit & dehumanises those he has recruited