Character Clues

Character Analysis

Social Status

Does it matter that Katherine is a queen? Sure, it does. Without her social status, Katherine's plight might not be as important. It's the fact that she's the queen that makes her divorce such a big deal; in fact, when Katherine asks about the new taxes, Henry tells her directly: "you have half our power" (1.1.12).

When she is no longer queen, Katherine fades away; it's as though she's got nothing left to live for. The opposite thing happens to Anne: she goes from being "one of her Highness' women" to being the queen (1.4.125). When Anne is just a Viscount's daughter, no one cares about her or even knows who she is, but she does a complete 180 once she is queen.

Social status is a huge marker of what kind of person a character is in this play, but it's not permanently fixed: someone can have a lot of status one day, and none the next. King Henry may be the only person with stable status; everyone else has to fight with and manipulate each other in order to get and then try to keep their status.

Speech and Dialogue

It might seem like the characters are just shootin' the breeze with one another, but what they tell us is super important. In a play, it's not just important to pay attention to what a character does or says; it's also important to pay attention to what characters say about each other and to each other.

For example, a couple of gents fill us in on Buckingham's trial and Anne's coronation; the nobles let us know they don't trust Wolsey; Katherine calls Wolsey out on his actions when the two are in her room; Anne informs us about her desire not to be queen in her talk with the Old Lady; and Henry shows Cranmer he's got his back by taking him aside and giving him some insider information.

We can't always trust everything the characters say, but we can watch the way they gossip and play off each other to get a better idea of what makes each one of them tick.