Self-honesty and self-betrayal: Charles and Harry in king Charles III

answer, though, in most cases, they are not supposed to do it. Instead, they are to watch and tolerate what they are imagined to be.

As far as the characters’ behaviour in King Charles III is not likely to be confirmed or refuted by their real-life counterparts, in this essay I am going to take them all just as fiction characters and not to go beyond the plot of the play.

So, by the beginning of the described events Charles has been heir apparent to the throne for many years. Even if a reader does not happen to know it, the fact becomes clear from Charles’s words ‘My life has been a ling’ring for the throne’. Now he is finally King though not crowned yet. His first deed as the monarch is the refusal to sign a bill that has been voted on by the House of Commons and the House of Lords both. The fact that such a decision is a rare and not a popular thing also becomes clear: Prime Minister states that Parliament is ‘where decisions will be made’ not the Palace, and so ‘The law is made, and passed. It is too late’ . Charles himself confirms that the King’s choice is ‘A ceremonial right, no one to use’. Yet still he dares to use the right that leads to disorders in the streets and in Parliament and ends up with Charles’s abdication and the coronation of his son William.

Through the whole course of events it is obvious that the decision is hard for Charles. He has no illusions concerning himself, he calls his mind ‘indecisive’ and admits he is ‘better Thoughtful Prince than King’. But once the burden is on him, Charles acts according to his beliefs. The bill he refuses to sign is intended to restrict the freedom of the press, and Charles is concerned that it would cause censorship and corruption within the government thus putting British democracy in danger. He, as King, must protect justice that includes the right to free speech. Although he himself has suffered from press hunting, once King he should not think as a father or a husband but only do his duty. That is how Charles sees his role as King and he honestly and wholeheartedly tries to act according to what, in his judgement, is better for the country and society.

<…> if my name is given through routine

And not because it represents my view

Then soon I’ll have no name <…>

Prince Harry is quite alike his father here, but while Charles feels all right about his royal background itself, for Harry it seems a trap. In the conversation with his brother he confesses:

<…> I’ve had enough.

You will be King, and Kate your Queen.

And even if our father’s making waves

At least he is allowed to choose his course

But I am doomed forever just to chase

Your wake, a ginger joke, bereft of value.

In Harry’s eyes, even his father has more freedom then he does. It may look as if the idea of being trapped comes to Harry’s mind after the time spent with Jess, a republican, in whom he starts taking interest. Together they visit places where ordinary people go and do things that they do every day but which Harry used to assume being closed to him. He is inspired, he admires Jess’s flat ‘with a boiler that doesn’t work, and no carpet, but everything is yours’ , he has tasted another life, the one which does not resemble an official ceremony, and as a result he feels ‘more trapped, more narrowed down’ by his royal birth. The thought obviously does not strike Harry out of the blue, and Jess with her republican ideas and all the new experience are not the reason for his passing mood but rather the last straw that shapes his further intentions.

Harry takes Jess to the Palace to see his father and says that he wants to become a commoner. Actually, he is asking permission but in such a way no one has ever heard him speaking: passionate, determined, standing his ground. Harry appeals to the values his father shares and is ready to understand:

‘<…> like you, I don’t believe that born

A prince must mean I sacrifice my soul,

My hopes, desires, all that makes me, me.

Instead I should be free to choose my path

We all should! <…>’

Charles agrees and promises to give his approval after coronation, but his coronation never happens.

He sticks to the chosen path regardless of all the troubles it has led to. After his rejection of the bill against press the House of Commons is going to vote on another bill that will enable Parliament to legislate without the monarch’s assent. Charles follows the precedent of William IV and dissolves the Parliament. After that a new election must follow.

However unwise and unreasonably stubborn Charles may seem his self-honesty is undeniable. He really believes that he, as King, is ‘sown in British soil’ and his ‘cells and organs constitute this land’ . Charles’s words and views might look too romantic and naïve, a bit old-fashioned, going back to the time of William IV and his ancestors, but they are sincere. Charles is honest as well as at the moment when he is threatened with separation from the family in case he does not abdicate. ‘I cannot live alone’ Charles says. He does not lie to anybody, himself first, he was ready to withstand conflicts with Prime Minister, the Government even the subjects but he was not – and is not – ready to risk his family for the sake of the Crown. However, he does not discard his views:

<…> I’ll simply be an old

Forgotten gardener <…>

Whilst far away the King and Queen do rule

Over a golden age of monarchy,

That bothers no one, does no good, and is

A pretty plastic picture with no meaning.

Charles is still sure that an obedient King is nothing but a beautiful decoration, but the stakes are higher than he can afford, and he surrenders.

The situation is possibly the same for Harry. Readers do not witness what he was told to and by whom but see the result. Harry does not go on with his attempt to become a commoner and he lets Jess down. It may look as though he, like his father, chooses the family as the greatest value, but while Charles has never contradicted himself, Harry constantly does.

My heart was made by King, if I betray

Allegiance then the little that I am is gone

That is what he says to Jess, though before he stated that his royal life was ‘a life of humorous periphery’ and that being a prince must not mean sacrificing one’s soul and desires. Saying that he does not want to ‘betray allegiance’ when Jess suggests leaving the coronation ceremony together with her, Harry stays but at the same time replies ‘I want to’ . His actual wishes are not clear, his statements are opposite, it means that somewhere he is lying. In case he puts his family first, then he has actually betrayed it already by openly calling it a trap. If he is really in love with Jess and would like to share her way of life, then he has betrayed her. And in both cases, by this uncertainty and dubiousness he has betrayed some part of himself, either his loyalty and ancestry or his love and hopes.

At the end I would like to quote some more lines from Bartlett’s King Charles III :

Without my voice, and spirit, I am dust,

This is not what I want, but what I must.

These seem to be the words worth considering.