King John Weakness Quotes

If power makes people do things they wouldn't do ordinarily, weakness does so even more. If Arthur were in a position of power, do you think he would be forgiving the person who killed his uncle as easily as he does here? Isn't it more likely that he'd be acting like the Bastard, eager to go head-to-head with that person (Austria) and kill him? But because he is in a weak, powerless position, Arthur has to make friends with Austria.

Throughout King John, tears and prayers are the signs of powerlessness. (It is no coincidence that, in the play, they are most often associated with women and children, the most powerless figures in the medieval society in which the play takes place.) In this passage, the theme of tears and the theme of prayers are fused into one, when Constance predicts that the "crystal beads" coming from Arthur's eyes will make heaven "brib'd" to come to his aid and do justice for him. Based on the rest of the play, how effective a remedy would you say tears and prayers are, in Shakespeare's opinion?

In these highly cynical lines, the Bastard suggests that people in positions of weakness only hate power because they don't have it. In this case, weakness is represented by poverty, power by wealth. Once the poor (weak) achieve wealth (power), they start to hate people who are poor (weak). Thus, the Bastard divides the world strictly into the weak on one side and the powerful on the other. He doesn't seem to think there's any middle ground, let alone any hope for a future in which everyone lives together on terms of equality. Why does he have this attitude? Is it just shaped by the time in which he lives, or does it still apply today?

In these lines, Constance criticizes Salisbury for telling her about Blanche of Spain's impending marriage to Louis the Dauphin of France. Constance still clings to the belief that Salisbury isn't telling the truth and says he shouldn't frighten her like that, given the position of weakness she is in. She then goes on to describe that position of weakness. But it looks like Constance's weakness goes deeper even than she says. Isn't the inability to accept reality another form of weakness? This form of weakness will crop up later in the play, and Constance won't be the only one who suffers from it.

In these lines, too, we see a woman in a position of powerlessness use the only recourse available to her: prayer. As it turns out, her prayers come true: war does break out between Philip and John before the day is out. But the war doesn't go Constance's way; in the battle that follows, her son Arthur will be captured, thus setting in motion a series of events that will ultimately lead to his death. Could this tragic outcome be thought of as doubly reinforcing our sense of Constance's powerlessness?

These lines show the height (or depth) of Constance's weakness and powerlessness. Unable to do anything to get her beloved child back, she resorts to symbolic action: tearing her hair to give it its "liberty." She wishes she could also give her child his liberty, but she can't. Thus, she wavers back and forth in confusion and frustration.

You might say that in King John, there are two kinds of weakness: one that comes from circumstances, and one that comes from a person's character. In the fourth quotation for this section, we saw that Constance suffers from both: on the one hand, she suffers from weakness because of circumstances—because she is a woman and because she needs to rely on other, powerful factions to protect her and her son. But she also suffers from the other kind of weakness, when she is unable to accept reality. In these lines, we see that King John himself suffers from weakness of character. When he gets too much bad news, he simply can't bear to hear any more, and tries to shut it out. It's only when the Bastard points out the foolishness of this course of action that King John gets it together and is ready to hear more bad news.

These lines by the Bastard aren't explicitly about weakness; in fact, they're about weakness's opposite, strength. But the reason the Bastard is going on and on about the importance of strength is that King John isn't showing any of it at the moment. Thus, you can pretty much read everything the Bastard says about strength and say that John's weakness risks having the opposite effect: for example, if weaker people draw strength from the strength of their leader (as the Bastard describes in lines 50-53 of this passage), they can be expected to become even weaker if their leader is weak.

In these lines, the Bastard makes a last ditch effort to get King John to show some fortitude. But King John at this point has simply become too weak to do anything. He even tells the Bastard that he should take charge of "ordering […] this present time." In other words, he's basically handing over his royal authority to a recently discovered family member without any legitimate political authority. Not a very inspiring move there, Johnny boy.

Earlier in this section, we talked about how King John depicts two kinds of weakness: weakness that comes from circumstances, and weakness that comes from inside a person. But of course, not all weakness that is internal to a person is that person's fault. Sickness is the prime example of this—especially when that sickness comes as a result of being poisoned. (It's not like King John got sick from spending all his time eating potato chips and watching TV.) That said, whether it's his fault or not, the weakness that comes from John's illness is just as dangerous for his kingdom as any other kind of weakness. England catches a major lucky break at the end of this play when the rebels come back to the king's side, and Louis the Dauphin decides to give up on his invasion—specifically because he is now too weak—even weaker than John—without his allies.