Understanding Shakespeare: The Merry Wives of Windsor by Robert A. Albano - HTML preview
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The Buffoon is a character that …
- has appetites (or desires) so strong that he cannot control them
- is a minor figure in the play, or is relegated to a subplot
- is controlled, either positively or negatively, by fate
- relies on luck rather than skill or hard work
- condemns his baseness but cannot relinquish it
- is socially destructive or harmful
- is harmful to himself
- garners the sympathy of the audience
Touchwod Sr. becomes a victim of his own sexual appetites; and yet he also clearly realizes that his base desires will eventually lead to his ruin:
Life, every year a child, and some years two! Besides drinkings abroad, that’s never reckoned. This gear will not hold out. (II, i: 15-17)10
Touchwood also realizes that his base desires are socially destructive:
I have such a fatal finger in such business
I must forth with’t, chiefly for country wenches. For every harvest I shall hinder hay-making. (II, i: 59-61)
Thus, Touchwood is a buffoon because he allows his carnal appetite to ruin himself and others. His situation is absurd and laughable, yet there are is a