In Part 2 in particular, Hal appears to become visibly embittered by his association with the world of Falstaff and Poins, using increasingly open derogatory language about both of them, but Poins is never explicitly rejected, unlike Falstaff. He is effectively a 'shadow' side of Hal himself. The fact that Poins disappears from the narrative after the end of Henry IV, Part 2 suggests that his identity cannot be incorporated into the continuing story he is neither a 'low life' character, nor a participant in the high politics of the new regime. He represents wayward tendencies within the upper class, closely linked to Hal's own behaviour.

He is 'of uncertain social standing', but his comment that his only problem is that he is a 'second brother' implies that he is 'a gentleman with no inheritance, his gentility making him an appropriate companion for Hal'. In this respect Poins is an ambiguous figure, who is both part of the criminal underworld and also of the superior social world that looks down on it and undermines it. In Part 1 he is presented as the more assertive of the two, being the 'mastermind' of both the Gads Hill robbery and its comeuppance. In Part 2 especially he is little more than a sounding board for Hal's views. Poins' principal role is to act as Hal's confidant. Hal and Poins listen to Falstaff's story of the robbery. There's no more conceit in him than is in a mallet. At the tavern, Doll asks why Hal likes Poins, Falstaff says that they are both similar in size and shape, and equally empty headed: 'His witвЂ™s as thick as Tewkesbury mustard. Poins suggests that they disguise themselves again, this time as waiters, to overhear the conversation.

Bardolph and a boy arrive with news that Falstaff is meeting Doll Tearsheet at the tavern. Hal gets a letter from Falstaff, in which Falstaff tells him not to trust Poins because he has been telling people that Hal will be marrying Poins' sister Nell. In Part 2 Poins discusses the illness of Hal's father the king, expecting Hal to be pleased at the prospect of his father's death. He also listens to Falstaff's increasingly ridiculous lies. Poins is with Hal when Hal plays a joke on Francis, a drawer (waiter) at the Boar's Head. When Poins and Hal attack Falstaff after the robbing the travellers, he and his followers instantly run away. The point of the jest will be to hear the 'incomprensible lies' Falstaff will later tell to excuse himself. When Falstaff and the others agree, Poins says to Hal that the pair of them should play trick on Falstaff by letting them rob the travellers, but then in disguise robbing the robbers of their haul. He suggests that they organise a robbery. Poins appears early in Henry IV, Part I to inform Falstaff that at Gads Hill there will be unprotected 'pilgrims going to Canterbury with rich offerings, and traders riding to London with fat purses'.

Henry iv part 1 wiki