-
Polysemic Brotherhoods in Henry V
- SEL Studies in English Literature 1500-1900
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 50, Number 2, Spring 2010
- pp. 337-354
- 10.1353/sel.0.0099
- Article
- Additional Information
- Purchase/rental options available:
In Henry V, Shakespeare seems particularly fascinated with the various connotations of the word "brother" and with the varying sense of closeness and distance implied in fraternal relationships. This essay argues that he used this word and other fraternal terms in a related lexical web in order to express a conflicted position in relation to an emerging English nationalism that generated fears of racial, national, and spiritual others.