SOURCE: Turner, Robert Y. “Characterization in Shakespeare's Early History Plays.” ELH 31, no. 3 (September 1964): 241-58.

In the following essay, Turner argues that because of his relative inexperience as a playwright, Shakespeare created characters in Henry VI, Parts 1, 2, and 3 that are “flat” depictions of morality figures who show no remorse for their actions.

The major figures in the Henry VI plays undergo no moral change of character. Even at the moment of death when they face an eternity of punishment, they feel no regrets and make no judgment on a life of misdeeds as, for example, Richard II does before he is murdered. In carrying out their actions, they experience no hesitations or fear, struggle with no conflicting paths of action as Macbeth was to face, and sense no discrepancy between motive and duty as Hamlet was to feel. When their plans fail, they utter no second thoughts about them...