Friendship and Duty in Henry IV, Part 2

Hal and Falstaff sit together in the Boar’s Head Tavern, and for a moment the play seems to be about nothing but joy—wine, food, laughter, and the warmth of a man who has taught the prince how to live. Falstaff is not just a companion to Hal. He is a father figure, a teacher, a mirror in which Hal can see himself without the weight of the crown. But this friendship is built on a lie. Hal is prince, and Falstaff is a subject. They are not equals, no matter how much wine they drink together or how many jokes they share. The friendship can only last as long as Hal remains a boy. The moment he becomes king, it must end.

Throughout the play, Hal is pulled between two worlds. In the tavern, he is free to be witty, to mock authority, to belong to a community of misfits and fools. But he is also aware, even in his laughter, that this world cannot last. When his father is ill, Hal leaves the tavern to attend to his duty. When news comes of rebellion, he rides away from Falstaff to face the real work of a prince. The play shows Hal increasingly torn between the two poles—friendship and duty, pleasure and responsibility, the boy he was and the man he must become. Falstaff, meanwhile, refuses to acknowledge this tension. He keeps joking, keeps drinking, keeps pretending that Hal will always be available to him.

The Lord Chief Justice represents the opposing value. He is not Hal’s friend. He is stern, righteous, and willing to arrest the prince for striking him in public. But he is also serving the law and the kingdom. When Hal becomes king, he does not reward his friends. Instead, he embraces the Chief Justice as his symbolic father, the embodiment of law and duty. This is not cruelty. It is wisdom. A king cannot have friends. He can only have subjects and advisors. The moment Hal accepts this, he is ready to rule.

When Hal banishes Falstaff, he speaks the hardest truth the play offers: “Presume not that I am the thing I was.” The boy is dead. The friend is gone. What remains is the king, and the king belongs to the kingdom, not to any man. Falstaff expected that their friendship would protect him, that Hal would remember their nights together and reward him with power and gold. Instead, Hal remembers nothing. Or rather, he remembers it all and recognizes it as a beautiful dream that cannot survive the morning. The play does not say that Hal is right to banish Falstaff, or that he is wrong. It says only that this is what kingship requires. Friendship and duty are incompatible. A man can choose one or the other, but not both.