SOURCE: Manheim, Michael. “Silence in the Henry VI Plays.” Theatre Journal 29, no. 1 (1977): 70-6.

In the following essay, Manheim stresses Henry VI's humanity and compassion, characterizing him as a man of integrity who is shocked into silence by the treachery and brutality of England's fractious noblemen.

Alwin Thaler nearly a half century ago introduced the idea that Shakespeare, the master of words, achieves some of his most effective and meaningful dramatic moments through the absence of words.¹ Thaler of course discusses characters who have created problems for interpreters because of their refusal to speak, or to speak much, on subjects about which their responses clearly seem called for: for example, Macbeth's puzzling silence on the subject of his offspring, and Hermione's sixteen-year silence about the injustices done her (The Winter's Tale). But Thaler also examines specific scenes in which the overall effect clearly derives from a juxtaposition of silence...