Understanding Shakespeare: The Merry Wives of Windsor by Robert A. Albano - HTML preview

attempt to sin for his own profit. In fact, the strength of this comedy derives from the audience’s anticipation of the fitting punishments that Falstaff will receive for his presumptuous attempts on the ladies’ honor. The audience cannot help but enjoy the scenes when (1) Falstaff hides in a basket of laundry that is dumped into a ditch (III, iii and III, v), (2) Falstaff disguises himself as an old woman to avoid being caught by Ford but then is beaten when Ford mistakes the old woman for a notorious busybody and witch (IV, ii), and (3) Falstaff is humiliated and tricked by the town into thinking that supernatural creatures are pinching him (V, v). These scenes would be dry of any humor should the audience be concerned about Falstaff or hope that he will somehow escape punishment.

The Falstaff presented in Merry Wives is truly an incorrigible one. The first time a member of the audience views this play, he or she may wonder whether Falstaff may reconsider and change his ways after the first setback or after the second. But Falstaff does not change. He does not learn. He does not correct his ways. To do so would be contradictory to the comic type that he is. Even after Falstaff’s final defeat in the last scene of the play, the audience will not walk away with the feeling that Falstaff will then become a new man. Rather, the suspicion remains that, most likely, Falstaff will move on to try his luck in some other town.

Unlike the Impostor, the Windsor Falstaff is