Henry VI, Part 2

'The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.' The plays which make up Shakespeare’s Henry VI create a world without ideology; a savage time, when the heroes are not kings, but formidable women, such as Joan of Arc, or rebels, such as Jack Cade. Bold characterisation, black comedy, rhetorical power and, in the personality of Henry VI, touching pathos combine in Shakespeare’s powerful rendering of a country racked by civil war.