As William Shakespeare wrote As You Like It, “All the world is a stage,/And all the men and women but players.” / They have their exits and their entrances;/ And a man in his time plays several roles. » Shakespeare further adds to this philosophy by presenting the young prince Hal in his play Henry IV, Part I. Hal adopts several personas ranging from “noble” to “degenerate” (Barber 54). He is able to knowingly lead this entire range of personalities on the path to inheriting the throne by manipulating what he learns from observing King Richard II, his father King Henry IV, and his own political stratagem. His ultimate wisdom – the realization that “makes” Hal – is that the role of the king is little more than a performance for the audience, implying that the king himself is little more than a actor. Through King Henry IV's evaluation of Hal's actions in light of Richard's and his own reign, Hal discovers that a king is an artist who must decide what type of character he wishes to reveal to the public. Furthermore, in light of his early associations with John Falstaff, Hal embodies the role of the “traditional prodigal son,” accompanied by degenerate and bibulous cronies to tempt him into wrongdoing (Barber 54). Although King Henry and Hal recognize that this current life of carelessness and ill-repute does little to prepare him for the throne, Hal is a cunning young man, worldly in his perception of the role of a leader before his audience. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayAn actor should not be too intimate with his audience in order to establish himself and his actions as somehow separated from the common place, the banal. According to King Henry IV, Richard II's tragic flaw was that he "became a companion of the common streets, subservient to popularity" (HIV1.III.ii.68-69). He appeared too often in the public eye, thus stripping himself of the mystery and respect that a king must demand from his public. A king should be seen just enough to intrigue the audience, while leaving enough enigma to spark a sense of wonder. Moreover, an actor's performance is a marriage between speech and action. Consequently, the "pathos of the loss of meaning" and of the position of king is emphasized in moments where "word and gesture, name and body no longer go together", as when Richard, ousted, looks at himself in a mirror to find the “meaning that the face has lost” in losing its royalty (Barber 68). While Richard played his role as king to the best of his abilities with flair and ostentation, he neglected to earn the respect of his audience, which led to his downfall. On the other hand, an actor must also establish a certain level of familiarity with the audience. to gain their affection and establish a feeling of connection. After witnessing the errors of Richard's reign, Henry took care to make his reign "rarely but sumptuous" (HIV1.III.ii.58). Due to this preoccupation, Henry never truly establishes a recognizable personality with his audience, thus being shrouded in mystery. His anonymity is depicted during the Battle of Shrewsbury where he "survives because he has many demonstrators in his coats, and throughout a political career where...he manipulates the symbols of majesty" (Barber 63) . Even Shakespeare's audience has little respect for Henry because he pays very little attention to his son except to chastise him for his wrongdoings. Falstaff, the foolish but confidant alcoholic, rather than Henry, often gets more fatherly billing in Hal. Hal feels that a wiser ruler would be one who.