Protagonist

Character Role Analysis

We're Not Sure

It's not easy to decide who is the protagonist in this play—it seems like Shakespeare goes out of his way to make it unclear to us. Why? It makes the play more interesting, for one thing. The play doesn't tell us who we should root for; we get to decide for ourselves. If we think about the protagonist as the character—good or bad—we are given the most access to, who would that be?

You might think it would Henry VI. He's the title character, after all, right? Well, he sure is a contender, but here's something to think about: usually, the protagonist's role is to control the action in some way or at least respond to it. Henry doesn't really do either of those things; he just wants to escape from it all. (Well, that is one reaction, we suppose.)

Henry's always meek and mild, passively reacting to what's happening around him. He has a hard time making decisions without Gloucester or Margaret taking over for him at every turn.

So, maybe you're thinking that one of them might be the protagonist. That's certainly plausible. These two jump in and decide who needs to do what for the country, and they run things the way they want them to be run. But we could poke holes in that, too, since there are so many scenes that don't involve them, and it can't really be said that the plot hinges on them more than it does on Henry.

If we look strictly at line count, we get this:

• York: 379
• Margaret: 316
• Henry: 314
• Gloucester: 303
• Suffolk: 298
• Cade: 238

That doesn't help much, either. It looks like a bunch of characters have around 200-300 lines, with no one character coming out on top, except York, which makes things even more confusing. Even Cade is up there.

Shakespeare goes back and forth between characters, so we have to decide who we agree with most. What do you think? Maybe the point is that there isn't one single protagonist, and that the play is more about a big event and its consequences than it is about one individual?