Henry VI Part 3 Warfare Quotes

What a pretty image for such a nasty action. Henry's beautiful metaphor for war (daybreak fighting off the night) shows how far removed he is from it. He has the luxury of sitting on a hill, watching the whole thing from a distance. We never see Henry fight for his crown. He leaves that to his wife, child, and army. On the other hand, though, most of the characters in the play act as if war isn't all that big of a deal; they think it's totally legit to go to battle over what is essentially a family squabble. It's only later that some of them see how nasty the whole thing can be.

Edward and posse hear someone die, and Edward tells his comrades that they should treat this guy like a gentleman even if he is an enemy. Edward's remark shows that there is still some honor in war... or so it seems. Edward wants to leave this man to die with his dignity, but that quickly goes out the window when they all see it's Clifford who is dying. Since Clifford killed Rutland, they don't care about him one bit. So much for honor, after all.

Once her son is killed, Margaret speaks out against all the stuff that's been going down. The thing is—she's right. These people are butchers, carelessly throwing away human life. Um... then again, so is she. This is the woman who chopped off York's head after taunting him with the blood of his dead son, right? We'd say that puts a little kink in her soapbox speech. The point, though, may be that Margaret isn't able to fully understand the horrible consequences of her actions until it her son is killed in front of her; that's when things really hit home.