The Play as Truce: Attainable Peace in Henry V and The Winter's Tale

The article first argues that Henry V and The Winter 's Tale dramatises the theory of truce and its implementation through the performative nature of dramatic 'cracks' such as secondary plots, scenes of comic relief and temporal gaps. [...]this piece argues that truce is an operating...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Early modern literary studies 2022-12, Vol.Special Issue (30), p.1-1
Main Author: de Carles, Nathalie Rivere
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Audiences
Diplomacy
Diplomatic & consular services
Drama
History
Humanities and Social Sciences
Law
Literature
Military policy
Peace
Political science
Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)
Theater
Tragicomedy
Truces & cease fires
War
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Summary:The article first argues that Henry V and The Winter 's Tale dramatises the theory of truce and its implementation through the performative nature of dramatic 'cracks' such as secondary plots, scenes of comic relief and temporal gaps. [...]this piece argues that truce is an operating framework in a strategy of peace-making or at least of the sustainable suspension of conflicts not only at the level of the characters but of the audience. From this panoramic study emerges two different visions of truce, 'base' and 'happy' truce dramatised in Henry V. The latter stages both a zerosum-gain negotiation in Act 3 Scene 3 (one player's gain is predicated on the other players' loss) and the possibility of a non-zero-sum agreement (one player's gain [or loss] does not necessarily result in the other players' loss [or gain]) in Act 2 Scene 1,8 In Henry V and The Winter's Tale, truce-making is left to secondary characters, but it is the tragicomedy with its play-long expansion of the time and territory of truce that really tests a method to implement a successful 'happy' truce through a time-lapsing diplomacy. [...]the play offers another method: theatre and wonder. [...]the article posits that artistic performance gives further agency to this newly-created dramatic truce through the redefinition of the characters' and the audience's relationship with the past in both the final scene of The Winter 's Tale and some contemporary performances of Henry V. The article concludes that truce as an operating framework and as the strategy for a performance of history shows that the Shakespearean play offers a practical articulation of ideal and non-ideal views of peace-making, the responsibility of which lies ultimately with the audience.
ISSN:1201-2459
1201-2459