Redemption must come from action. In the play King Henry IV pt 1 there are many people who need redemption but few who actually seek it out and do what is neccessary to receive it. The two main characters seeking redemption in this play are Prince Hal (the focus of my blog) and Hotspur, perhaps not so coincidentally they must gain redemption through the defeat of the other in valiant battle. This is shown in Prince Hal's answer to the king's claim of having a "degenerate" son; "Do not think so; you shall not find it so: / And God forgive them that so much
have sway'd / Your majesty's good thoughts away from me! / I will redeem all this on Percy's head / And in the closing of
some glorious day / Be bold to tell you that I am your son." (Act 3, Scene 2, Line 134-139) The scene containing this quote is all about the king degrading the prince about his previous interactions with the lowlife tavern folk and then the prince having to vow to redeem himself by killing the greatest threat to the throne, Harry "Hotspur" Percy.
Action must happen in order for the prince to gain redemption, he must be victorious in battle against his honorable enemy Hotspur. The prince cannot just say that he will be a better man, he cannot just say that he will appear more honorable, he cannot even earn his father's love without first defeating Hotspur and thus redeeming his honor in the eyes of the king. Redemption needs action; it takes the action of thrusting his sword through the body of Hotspur. It takes the action of claiming that he will be victorious and then the seeking out of Hotspur in battle and his subsequent defeat to gain his, Hal's, redemption.
But, to complicate the argument, we see Prince Hal's redemption come early in the eyes of King Henry just from Hal's battle prowess and his narrow save of the king's life. (Act 5, Scene 4, Line 47-50) Hal's redemption still requires action in the king's eyes but not neccessarily the proclaimed action that we hear earlier in the play of him needing to kill Hotspur. The redeeming of Prince Hal must be through his valiant and heroic actions on the battlefield, actions that the king must witness firsthand. So, in conclusion, redemption can only be granted through heroic actions that are viewed by the party that required it in the first place.
Ian, it's odd to think of Hotspur as a character who seeks redemption; his usage of the term is quite different from Hal's, and that's worth considering. Your account of redemption through action is a strong one and well-observed; Hal's heroism is certainly a command performance, necessary for the transformation from base to noble man. But what action is required for this turns out to be an interesting question--why isn't it enough for Hal to save his father's life? Why must Hotspur die? Why can't peace be negotiated here? Redemption turns out to depend on Hotspur's sudden decline--which is not quite the Christian meaning we might expect.
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