# of Words: 409

George Lucas wasn't the first one to start a franchise in the middle of things--or at medias res, if you want to get all fancy about it. Star Wars was so popular that Lucas just had to go back and give us the prequel for the original 3 films. Some critics think Shakespeare did the identical thing: he wrote Henry VI, Parts two and 3 first, and after they were such crowd pleasers, he moved back and did a Part 1.

Nowadays, we group Henry VI, Part 3 with other history plays known as the "first tetralogy," beginning with Henry VI, Part 1, and ending with Henry VI, Part 3 and Richard III. This tetralogy is all about the Wars of the Roses (c. 1455-1485), a string of English civil wars fought between two branches of the Royal House of Plantagenet: the Lancasters (whose heraldic symbol was the red rose) and the Yorks (whose heraldic emblem was the white rose).

As Henry VI, Part 3 opens, York and his posse have only beaten the Lancastrian King Henry VI in one conflict, and they all head back to London for another battle... of phrases. There's a big debate about who deserves the crown longer, and it is not decided for sure until the end of the play. There's a lot of fighting in between, of course, to settle the score.

If all this has you needing to hit the snooze button, think again. Shakespeare spices up "history" with a little fiction. He's the master of focusing on the hot stuff and blowing it out of proportion for striking effect. In Henry VI, Part 3, Shakespeare took the best bits of action during the Wars of the Roses, condensed them, cut all the boring stuff, and fictionalized entire interactions to create something totally entertaining.

If you've hung around Shakespeare long enough, you might recognize that those components crop up in some of the other plays. Anyone remember Lady Macbeth (a ruthless woman afterwards power), King Lear (a feeble king totally over his lifetime), or Iago (a villain mastermind we like to hate)? They all get their start here, if you're on the lookout for them.

Okay, Henry VI, Part 3 may not be as mind-blowingly awesome as some of Shakespeare's later plays, but Shakespeare is kind of like pizza: even when he's not at his best, he is still pretty awesome. Think of this as a draft for some major literary masterpieces. As drafts go, we are totally not complaining.

Related Papers

Dubliners James Joyce

For the majority of the last hundred decades, in case you wanted an interactive geographical adventure of Dublin--the sights, the sounds, and particularly the folks--you could not do much better than read the fifteen connected short stories of James Joyce collection. Most editions of the collection contain two or three city maps from the landing pages, but it becomes fairly clear early on that the stories themselves produce a much better map of the Irish capital because they dig deep into the......Read More

Frankenstein Mary Shelley

Regardless of what Hollywood would like you to think, there was no flash of lightning, no bolt through the head, no scientist yelling "It is alive! ," without a flat-top haircut. Throughout the summer of 1816, eighteen-year-old Mary Wollstonecraft Godwinwas hanging outside at a Swiss lake home with her fan and future husband Percy Bysshe Shelley; renowned English poet, Lord Byron; along with Byron's doctor John Polidori. (And a few others, but these are the essential names.) Thus, you're bored......Read More

Glengarry Glen Ross David Mamet

Sure, observing someone stab another person at the trunk or seeing him skirt the legislation could be interesting, but toss a little competition from the combination, and things could get downright thrilling. This is the form of planet David Mamet is known for producing--a world filled with conflict and tension in which folks behave badly, and we as the audience only get to sit back and appreciate. Wait--did you think it was all just driving around and showing individuals fine homes? Nope. That......Read More

Related Topics