A Comparison of Characters: The Merry Wives of Windsor vs. Henry IV Plays
In the Henry IV plays, Sir John Falstaff is the companion of Prince
Hal. He is a liar, a thief, a drunkard and a coward, but he has the
gift of making light of everything. His easy-going good nature makes
others willing to indulge his outrageous behavior, and he gets out of
scrapes by using his quick wit and his ability to play on words.
Falstaff cares nothing for authority and is cynical about martial
ideals such as honor. He simply looks out for himself. Despite
Falstaff’s outlandish behavior, Prince Hal finds him a lovable and
entertaining companion, and his other friends, such as Poins and
Bardolph, are also fond of him. Indeed, the Falstaff of the Henry
plays has been described as the supreme comic character on the English
stage.
In The Merry Wives of Windsor, however, Falstaff, although he retains
some of the former character’s verbal extravagance, no longer uses his
wit to stay one step ahead of everyone else. Quite the reverse. He
becomes merely the butt of the humor. He is vain and stupid—stupid
enough to believe that the “merry wives” will welcome his attentions.
Not only does he make this big mistake, he repeats it, falling for the
same ruse, not once, not twice but an incredible three times. This is
clearly a lesser figure than the Falstaff of the Henry plays. A. C.
Bradley, one of the great Shakespearean critics of the nineteenth
century, was horrified at what Shakespeare had done to his beloved
Falstaff, calling the character in Merry Wives an “impostor.”
According to Bradley, the few sentences in the play that were worthy
of the real Falstaff might be written down on a single sheet of
notepaper (see Bradley’s essay, “The Rejection of Falstaff,” in Oxford
Lectures on Poetry, 1909, p. 248). Perhaps if Shakespeare had given
the Falstaff of Merry Wives a different name, he might have avoided
such howls of protest from devoted Shakespeareans, and the play might
have received more appreciation from critics than it has done.
rebellion within the tavern setting as he becomes an adult with the political prowess to
shall firstly do a summery of the play and give a basic image of what
Hal is a cold, calculating Machiavellian ruler. According to Machiavelli’s popular theory, being a successful leader has nothing to do with being a nice person or doing the right thing. Instead, it’s about being inventive, manipulative, crafty, and willful. Hal is an intelligent character who put all those attributes to work when he articulated a grand plan to fool everyone around him in order to gain power. One critic claims that traditionally there are two common ways to interpret Prince Hal's development. The first is to see it as a celebration of a great king in training who grows in his responsibility and develops into a mature political leader. The second view sees Prince Hal as a cold Machiavel who uses his friends as means to a political end, without much regard for their feelings. (Johnston 1).
King Henry VIII is considerable the most controversial monarch Great Britain has ever had. He is commonly known for his ill-advised decisions, six wives, and splitting Great Britain from the Catholic Church to create the Church of England. King Henry VIII of England’s determination to guarantee his family line’s continuation in the throne caused many problems, such as religious tensions, economic hardships, and political adversaries that continued one long after his death.
It has been shown again and again throughout history and literature that if there is a perfect human he is not also the perfect ruler. Those traits which we hold as good, such as the following of some sort of moral code, interfere with the necessity of detachment in a ruler. In both Henry IV and Richard II, Shakespeare explores what properties must be present in a good ruler. Those who are imperfect morally, who take into account only self-interest and not honor or what is appropriate, rise to rule, and stay in power.
Falstaff who seems to be Hal’s role model while in the Tavern, is putting forth a great deal of effort to have Hal conform into the lowlife that he himself has made himself out to be. Falstaff teaches Hal how to lie, cheat, and steal, but Hal seems to have a mind of his own. He tells his father that at any given moment he can change his character and be what his father wants him to be. Henry declines to believe these statements.
Henry V is not a simple one as it has many aspects. By looking into
of his true intentions and that he does not plan to 'keep her long' we
Henry V, like most characters created by Shakespeare, is very complex, and cannot by defined in black and white or as good or bad. However, he is the sum of his actions, and his actions and decisions during the campaign during the campaign in France lead him to be classified as a war criminal. A politician who works for his own good and through that, the good of his country, Henry’s decisions are often cold and calculated, designed to manipulate those around him.
Hal is the Prince of Wales and heir to the British throne was able to manipulate both the nobles and the court in order to satisfy his needs. Firstly, his ability to speak confidently between the lower class and upper class allowed him to gain authority of many things. In the beginning of the play, Poins tells Hal and Falstaff there is a robbery planned for...
Compare the behavior and reactions of Richard, Anne and Elizabeth in Act One Scene Two and Act Four Scene Four.
Tom Meehan. With every new show, there is always competition to be the best show.
The Tudors consisted of five kings and queens as well as Lady Jane Grey. The family line began when King Henry V passed away and his wife later on remarried a man named Owen Tudor. The Tudors were known as the most powerful, feared, and inspirational line of people to have lived during their time
The Elizabethan era gender roles were much different than they are today. Women were regarded as the weaker sex, and men were always dominant. These “rules” are shown prominently throughout Romeo and Juliet, and paved way for obstacles they went through in their relationship. The gender conventions for women and men were prodigiously stereotypical and unreasonable, as they made men out to be the superior gender. Women should not have been perceived as inferior to men, and these unwritten rules for masculinity and femininity were shown throughout the play. Romeo acted very feminine which contradicted his gender conventions while Juliet did not abide by rules and disobeyed her parents. Romeo and Juliet had many ways in which they followed and
The role of the Chorus in the Shakespeare's play, Henry V, is significant. Due to the subject matter that the play deals with, it is hard to present in the way that it deserves. The Chorus helps the audience follow the play by helping them to picture things as they were through the use of imagery. It uses descriptive language in describing events that take place in the play. The Chorus also helps in making the plot of the play flow together better by filling the time lapses that occur between acts due to the fact that the event being depicted in only a few hours actually occurred over several years, leaving some gaps between events. It also explains what happens in an act beforehand because the scenes switch around from place to place, and it can get confusing. The most important function of the Chorus is that it encourages the audience to be patient and reminds them to use their imagination to envision the events that occur in the play, to really imagine the royal courts of England and France, and to really imagine the battle scenes with all the horses and men.