SOURCE: Pearlman, E. “King John.” In William Shakespeare: The History Plays, pp. 65-72. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1992.

In the following essay, Pearlman investigates the weaknesses of King John, focusing on the play's plot, characters, and language.

King John is certainly the weakest of Shakespeare's history plays, and it may be the least accomplished of all his works. The complaints about it are grievous: the plot is clumsy, the characters both undeveloped and inconsistent, and the language only intermittently interesting. The play does not seem to have engaged Shakespeare's deepest imagination.

The opening scene is by far the most economical and successful. King John of England, whose claim to the throne depends more on “strong possession” (1.1.39) than on legal right, is challenged by King Philip of France. When the previous king, Richard Coeur-de-Lion, willed the throne to his younger brother John, he passed over Arthur, the son of his...