In Act 3 Scene I of Henry the Fifth we see a young King Henry giving a motivational speech to his troops to prepare them for battle. However, in this speech we find evidence of more than just encouraging words. In effect, we find the King performing a ritualistic dehumanization of his troops to change them from civilized Englishmen into wild and savage beast. It is this same kind of verbal dehumanization disguised in the form of motivational speech that plays such a vital role in the art of war both then and now.

From the very beginning of his speech King Henry quotes some famous words that have been used time and time again by leaders to call their troops to war. King Henry begins "Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more." (3:1:1-2) In these simple but profound words King Henry has begun a rallying cry that was to be echoed time and time again by military leaders. The use of the words "once more" gives his troops the image of being called upon by some higher power in order purge the world of some great or substantial evil. This sets into the motion the basis for the verbal dehumanization to begin. For without this call to arms for the greater good. Henry's troops might begin to see their enemies, the French, as something other than a great evil, needing to smitten from the face of the earth. In the same manner many of the great wars in recent history have begun with those same faithful words "once more" with the same kind of ideology behind them.

In the next part of his speech King Henry begins the dreadful process of dehumanizing his troops. With such raw and powerful words such as "stiffen the sinews" (3:1:7) and "conjure up the blood" (3:1:7) King Henry charges his own men to disguise their otherwise "fair nature" (3:1:8) and instead "imitate the action of the tiger." (3:1:6) Likewise, these same types of words are used in our wars today as political and military leaders command their troops to summon all the their courage and ferocity so that they may put aside their weak human natures in order to become lean, mean, fighting machines. In effect, this very process is the crucial element in preparing men for war. Not only must they see the enemy as a great evil, but now they must become the great noble hunter, a deadly force with a righteous cause, so that they can justify to themselves the purging of their own humanity and the taking up of a fearsome and vicious nature as destructive and inhuman as war itself.

In the last part of his speech King Henry has but one thing left to do, that is to let loose his carnivorous troops. In his final words to his troops he knows that he has already succeeded in dehumanizing them and now sees them "like greyhounds in the slips [leashes]." (3:1:31) No longer the fair natured noblemen of English society, King Henry has metamorphosed his troops into blood thirsty hell hounds bent on the vicious destruction of their French enemies. In a like manner, on the eve of a great charge or campaign military leaders have similar images of their troops, whom they have transformed from respectful citizens to war machines. Indeed, there is now only one thing left to, and that is to send their creations charging off into battle for alas the game is afoot!!!