Chip Kendrick
AP Shakespeare
Mr. Robinson

Hotspur: Stubborn Tragic Hero

	In Shakespeare's Richard IV Part One, the characters' many different conceptions of 
honor govern how they respond to situations.  Each character's conception of honor has a great 
impact on the character's standing after the play.  For instance, Falstaff survived because he 
dishonorably faked his own death, and his untrue claim that he was the one who killed Hotspur may 
get him a title and land.  On the other hand, Hotspur lies dead after losing a duel for honor.  
Hotspur, who is in many ways the ideal man by the standards of his time, is killed by his lust for 
honor.  In creating Hotspur, Shakespeare has created a variation on the tragic hero of other works: 
the stubborn tragic hero, who, dying for his fault of honor, does not at last understand his 
weakness.
	The fault of the classic tragic hero, hubris, is very similar to Hotspur's need for honor.  
While hubris is excessive pride, the quest for honor can be viewed as the quest ( of the proud ) to 
get more titles and accolades, more things to be proud of.  In addition, Hubris and honor drive their 
victims to ultimate failure in a similar manner: Oedipus is driven to find out the truth about his 
origins by his own pride just as Hotspur is driven by his need for honor to fight against the odds.  
Each fault is as inevitably dooming as the other: the quest for honor leads to greater and greater 
risks taken for greater and greater honors, and hubris leads to the acceptance of greater and greater 
risks as the proud hero cannot back down.  Thus Hotspur's need for honor is similar failing to 
hubris, giving him that characteristic of the tragic hero.
	Hotspur's standing in his society is very high: he is a great warrior with many great 
conquests in the bag, he owns land, he is married by the Church, and he has a title.  In this he is 
similar to other famous tragic heroes.  Oedipus was king at the opening of the play Oedipus Rex, 
and Odysseus was returning from a great military conquest that had been won with an idea that was 
at least partly his.  In addition, Hotspur experiences the traditional rise and fall sequence of the 
tragic hero.  As Hotspur's plot against the King unfolds, it appears that he has as allies all the forces 
of the men who were earlier named as fighting England's wars, and the King does not even have his 
son.  Here Hotspur hits his peak, just as Odysseus returning from victory at Troy was at his peak as 
he started the journey home.  Shakespeare packs almost all the bad news Hotspur will receive into a 
single scene, telling us that many of Hotspur's allies have fallen out of the scene and describing the 
King's forces and reinforcements, including Hal's joining Henry.  This is in the style of the fall of the 
tragic hero, and follows the pattern set by Odysseus' sudden shipwreck and Oedipus' sudden 
understanding of what he is.  To complete the picture, there is what might have been.  Just as 
Oedipus might have turned back from his quest for knowledge at any point, so Hotspur had several 
clear opportunities to turn back, even at advantage.  For instance, while the message carried by 
Worcester is altered, the message Blunt took back to the King was not changed, and could have 
been an offer of peace, on Hotspur's terms.  In addition, it is Hotspur who pushes for the battle to 
happen as soon as possible:


'Hotspur : We'll fight with him tonight

Worcester : It may not be.

Douglas : You give him then advantage.

Vernon : Not a whit.

Hotspur : Why say you so? Looks he not for supply?

Vernon : So do we.

Hotspur : His is certain, ours is doubtful.' 

Hotspur could have waited.  The final piece of the setup happens on the morning of the battle.  As 
Hotspur talks to his allies, a messenger arrives with letters that Hotspur refuses to read.  What is in 
these letters?  News from Northumberland, who is cured and will arrive in force in 12 hours?  Or 
perhaps Glendower is coming with what forces he could draw?  The point here is the unknown 
factor.  Hotspur is so pumped, so ready to go out on the field and fight the odds for honor, that he 
ignores what may have been the saving grace.  Hotspur starts high, falls fast, and ignores his option 
of turning back.  All these events and choices fit the model of the tragic hero.
	The means of Hotspur's death, although it seems contrary to his role as the tragic hero, is 
really unimportant.  Hotspur has no reason to fear out of shape, inexperienced Hal, and he is not 
taking any major odds in fighting him, as Hotspur makes reference to on the spot: '... and would to 
God/ Thy name in arms were now as great as mine'. ( Act V, Scene IV, Lines 68 & 69 ) However, 
the point here is not that Hotspur should never have dared to fight Hal, but that Hotspur's tragic 
flaw dooms him to die fighting for honor against bad odds.  Hal is only a symbol of the odds 
Hotspur and his allies are up against, and if Hotspur's fight with Hal was not set up by the plot 
going on from Hal's perspective, Shakespeare probably would have had him killed by a little-known 
noble or even a peasant warrior.  It could even be argued that Percy lost the battle because he was 
not as on guard as he might have been, because he was expecting an easy kill.  Thus Hotspur's 
dying in single combat verses an inferior opponent does not shatter the cast of the tragic hero, and 
in fact may simply add to the list of similarities.
	Finally there is the one most glaring difference between Hotspur and the tragic hero.  
Traditionally, the tragic hero, having destroyed himself, acknowledges his fault and names it.  
Hotspur, on the other hand, in still quite clearly embracing the need for honor that has killed him: 'I 
better brook the loss of brittle life/ Than those proud titles though hast won of me.'            ( Act V, 
Scene iv, Lines 77 & 78 )  So Hotspur, only at the very end of the play, suddenly cracks the mold 
of the tragic hero, and as he has done many times throughout the play, refuses to acknowledge his 
desire for honor as anything but righteous.  Lastly, Hotspur's use of the word 'proud' in describing 
his titles reinforces the link between hubris and Hotspur's quest for honor.
	Therefore Hotspur fits the mold of the tragic hero, and seems to have all the right 
characteristics, until in his death and downfall he lacks an epiphany.  Shakespeare seems to break 
the mold of the tragic hero in an almost stealthy way: Hotspur is not immediately and blatantly 
recognizable as the one and only hero, let alone the tragic hero.  It seems as though Shakespeare 
may have intended to break the mold without calling attention to the parting from tradition.  This, 
along with Shakespeare's many other minor breaks from tradition ( for instance creating characters 
with actual depth ), are some of the factors that distinguish Shakespeare from other writers of the 
Elizabethan period and made his writings exceptional.