Scene Analysis (Dialogue)

E:  We're a team!

H:  You won't catch me.

Obj (E):  Try to make a connection with H so she can find out what he is going to do.

Obj (H):  Parry.

E:  What's going on?

H:  You still won't catch me.

Obj (E):  Broach the real subject (again, trying to find out what's on H's mind).

Obj (H):  Deflect and parry.

E:  Trust me.

H:  I ain't buying.

Obj (E):  Persuade H that she's not dangerous, that she no longer has a stake in the game. Garner sympathy.

Obj (H):  Keep his guard up.

E:  You've won!

H:  Oh, have I?

Obj (E):  Persuade H that the fighting is over, and that he's won.

Obj (H):  Avoid being taken in.

E:  OK, enough screwing around. What's going on?

H:  All right, then. You want the truth?

Obj (E):  Play it straight and try to get H to play it straight too.

Obj (H):  Drop the bomb.

E:  I never expected this. The game hasn't split us up before.

H:  Isn't this the obvious way out?

Obj (E):  Express perplexity and pain.

Obj (H):  Find out how E will react, what she will do.

E:  I don't believe it. What a preposterous idea.

H:  I mean it.

Obj (E):  Show him he can't be serious.

Obj (H):  Show her he is serious: the realm needs a worthy successor.

E:  They're all you have.

H:  They're not good enough. Not nearly.

Obj (E):  Emphasize the connection between H, his sons, and herself.

Obj (H):  Prove that their sons are unworthy to be King. (And therefore he has no choice but to try again.) Express his anger (especially his anger concerning John, which he could never admit to before).

H:  You helped ruin Richard--who, I'm now willing to admit, was the best candidate.

E:  Yes, perhaps, but it was your fault too.

Obj (H):  Admit Richard was best; blame E for ruining him.

Obj (E):  Defend herself.

E:  I love you.

H:  I don't believe you. I don't want to believe you.

Obj (E):  Re-attach the chains.

Obj (H):  Avoid admitting the connection between E and himself.

H:  You were right.

E:  You were right too.

Obj (H):  Admit his role in ruining everything.

Obj (E):  Forgive--and re-establish closeness.

H:  We've had better times. We loved each other once.

E:  Remember that.

Obj (H):  Seek emotional release by remembering better, more hopeful times.

Obj (E):  Re-attach the chains.

E:  Checkmate!

H:  Is it?

Obj (E):  Close the trap.

Obj (H):  Play dumb.

H:  You are no part of me.

E:  Yes, I am--and we both know it.

Obj (H):  Deny the connection. Push her away, with increasing fervor (and cruelty).

Obj (E):  Assert the connection. Let him know that she sees through him.

E:  This can't work; time is on our side; we've got you; you can't win.

H:  I hope she's not right. She can't be right.

Obj (E):  Show H that his plan can't work. Corner him.

Obj (H):  Resist.

H:  You've got me. What are your terms?

E:  No terms! You've left me with nothing but my hope in my sons.

Obj (H):  Try to open negotiations.

Obj (E):  Let H know that she's not open to negotiation; too much is at stake for me--and it's his doing. Also: express anger at his ongoing injustice toward her.

H:  You say I'm old. I am. Pity me.

E:  Nothing doing, you treacherous old bastard.

Obj (H):  Get around her by being pitiful.

Obj (E):  Not let him get away with it.

H:  With or without your support, it's a done deal. Bye, love!

E:  You can't!

Obj (H):  Try a new tack: bluff. Goad her and see how she reacts.

Obj (E):  Stop him.

The mood of this scene is tense, powerful, and dynamic, with the emotions shifting between weariness, deliberate antagonism, and genuine tenderness.

The theme of this scene and play is power and mortality--how even a most bold, majestic power is still too weak to achieve immortality, and how the complexity of family bonds can both serve and undermine this goal.

Eleanor is determined, confident, cunning, and wise. She knows Henry on a level no one else does, and is determined to reinforce the bonds of their marriage--and ultimately, their family. She has just managed to elicit sorrow from her "surface" antagonist--Henry's mistress, Alais--and even had the strength to comfort her through it. Hence, Eleanor’s mindset at the start of this scene is both one of genuine weariness at their plight, and of tactical cunning for using that weariness to prove to Henry her "surrender." But after this scene, when Henry appears to have won, her cunning and determined side turn to a rather sick cruelty in a desperate attempt to stop Henry from casting off his family bonds.

Henry is a magnificent King, strong, bold, devoted to the welfare of his country, and intellectually brilliant. In this play, he realizes that his endgame has begun. He has to choose a worthy successor, or his life's work (and his country) will be undone--either by internal weakness or under the assault of French arms.

He knows that Eleanor is the only "match" he will find on earth, but he no longer trusts her political manoeuvering, and the needs of the realm come first.

In his struggle with Eleanor, he shows cunning, anger, genuine affection, frustration, and a steely will bent on giving the realm a worthy successor--and ensuring that his life and life-work will in some sense continue beyond his own approaching death.

Eleanor has come to Henry to have a serious talk about the succession--which is to say, a negotiation. The scene is a complex series of power plays on this topic, each side trying to get the other to break. The scene ends when Henry announces he is leaving for Rome--which at this moment, is only another bluff, but later turns into a serious intention.

This is a crucial scene, in which Henry and Eleanor both admit and try to deal with their sons' inadequacies. This scene sets in motion the events leading to the crisis in the dungeon which is the climax of the play.

The language of this play (like many classical plays) fully reflects--one might almost say that it creates--the characters who speak it: Johnny's foolishness, for example, is made plain in the things he says and the way he says them.

This richness of language creates opportunities and challenges for actors. (So much can be conveyed by the voice! So much has to be!)

In this scene, Eleanor and Henry confront each other with perfect lucidity and vigor of expression. They make heavy use of rhetorical patterning deliberately, for several different purposes: to heighten the expression of their feelings (as when Henry repudiates his former favorite: "I have caught him lying..."); to hide their real emotion behind the expression of a different one (as when Henry tries to deny his connection with Eleanor: "Do you ever see me?..."); or to corner an opponent in debate (as when Eleanor gradually hems Henry in: "Suppose I hold you back for one...").

Even when their speeches are not highly patterned, they often use vivid turns of phrase ("her pruney prince"), telling images ("I could peel you like a pear..."), plays on words ("the Pontiff owes me one Pontificate"; "from the cradle on you cradled him"), and classical references ("Not since Caesar..."). All these are devices the characters use to express (or conceal) their thoughts and feelings.

But the playwright is also speaking: when Henry compares Eleanor to the betrayed Caesar, he is unconsciously confessing his own betrayal.

There are lots of small set-piece mini-speeches, but there are also several passages of stichomythia, where the characters return line for line at each other: "Whatever I have done, you made me do." -- "You threw me out of bed for Richard." -- "Not until you threw me out for Rosamund." In fact, much of the dramatic rhythm of the scene can be mapped by looking at the variations in the length of each character's lines.