Walter Cohen (Norton Shakespeare)
- A central theme of the play is “Wives be merry, and yet honest, too.” The word honest indicates fidelity to the husbands.
- Another theme of the play is the social commentary against elitism, authority, upper classes.
- Shallow and Slender – pretensions to gentility are mocked
- Falstaff – unromantic, clearly after money
- Page – objects to Fenton who is dissolute and after money
- Sir Hugh Evans – authority representing Church – ineffectual
- Pages – have to accept Fenton – their position of authority is also ineffectual
- A theme involving Gender Conflicts is also in evidence:
- Two wives
- Quickly and Latin puns
- Ford’s beating the Witch of Brentford, an old woman, is an example of misogyny (a hatred of women)
- Slender & Caius are married to boys
- Women were played by boys in Renaissance theater
