Explore the different father/son relationships in Henry IV, Part 1; show how these contrasting relationships contribute to the plays ideas and dramatic tension.

             The main ideas of the play are redemption, honour, what it required to be an ideal King, and the waywardness of youth. It is through contrasting of the different father/ son relationships that we can see these ideas taking form. The main ideas within the play are all evident within the relationship between the King and Prince but only become clear when contrasted with the other similar relationships within the play.

             The relationship between Hal and his father can be typified by the all too familiar tradition of adolescents rebelling against authority, which in this case is his father, the King. Hal"s avoidance of all public responsibility, and his affinity with the Boar"s Head Tavern in Eastcheap, causes great concern for the King. This resentment towards his father appears to stem from his "Debt" he had never "promised" (Act 1, Scene 1, Line 207), his accident of birth leaving him with the huge responsibility of being the future King of England. The King believes he has done England a honourable deed by gaining the throne from Richard II and is wholly aware that to maintain order, a ruler and heir to the throne needs to be both responsible and honourable, something that Hal is judged by his father to lack, "riot and dishonour stain the brow of my young Harry" (Act 1, Scene 1, line 84). The King even testifies to his cousin Westmorland that he would rather trade Hal for Hotspur, the son of the Earl of Northumberland, confiding that Hotspur is the "theme of honours tongue" (Act 1, Scene 1, line 80), thus setting both Hotspur and his son in opposition with the intention of galvanising Hal into action and undertaking his role as prince of the realm.

             Shakespeare uses the first meeting between the King and Hal to illustrate the themes of honour and redemption.