the merry wives of windsor

This thesis will be divided into four parts, the background and introduction of the play; thematic and theatrical functions of Merry Wives of Windsor and the significance and implication of appearance and reality of Merry Wives of Windsor, last is the conclusion.I,the background and introductionThe Merry Wives of Windsor is a comedy by William Shakespeare, first published in 1602. The Windsor of the play's title is a reference to Windsor Castle in Berkshire, England, and though nominally set in the reign of Henry IV, the play makes no pretence to exist outside contemporary Elizabethan era English middle class life. It features the character Sir John Falstaff, the fat knight who had previously been featured in Henry IV Parts 1 and 2.The play has two parallel clues: a series foolish and greedy actions of the declining knight Sir John Falstaff; the marriage of Ann Page.Falstaff arrives in Windsor very short on money. He decides, to obtain financial advantage, that he will court two wealthy married women, Mistress Ford and Mistress Page. Falstaff decides to send the women identical love letters and asks his servants – Pistol and Nym – to deliver them to the wives. When they refuse, Falstaff sacks them, and, in revenge, the men tell Ford and Page (the husbands) of Falstaff's intentions. Page is not concerned, but the jealous Ford persuades the Host of the Garter tointroduce him to Falstaff as a 'Master Brook' so that he can find out Falstaff's plans.Meanwhile, three different men are trying to win the hand of Page's daughter, Mistress Anne Page. Mistress Page would like her daughter to marry Doctor Caius, a French physician, whereas the girl's father would like her to marry Master Slender. Anne herself is in love with Master Fenton, but Page had previously rejected Fenton as a suitor due to his having squandered his considerable fortune on high-class living. Hugh Evans, a Welshparson, tries to enlist the help of Mistress Quickly (servant to Doctor Caius) in wooing Anne for Slender, but the doctor discovers this and challenges Evans to a duel. The Host of the Garter prevents this duel by telling both men a different meeting place, causing much amusement for himself, Justice Shallow, Page and others. Evans and Caius decide to work together to be revenged on the Host.When the women receive the letters, each goes to tell the other, and they quickly find that the letters are almost identical. The "merry wives" are not interested in the aging, overweight Falstaff as a suitor; however, for the sake of their own amusement and to gain revenge for his indecent assumptions towards them both, they pretend to respond to his advances.This all results in great embarrassment for Falstaff. Mr. Ford poses as 'Mr. Brook' and says he is in love with Mistress Ford but cannot woo her as she is too virtuous. He offers to pay Falstaff to court her, sayingthat once she has lost her honor he will be able to tempt her himself. Falstaff cannot believe his luck, and tells 'Brook' he has already arranged to meet Mistress Ford while her husband is out. Falstaff leaves to keep his appointment and Ford soliloquies that he is right to suspect his wife and that the trusting Page is a fool.When Falstaff arrives to meet Mistress Ford, the merry wives trick him into hiding in a laundry basket ("buck basket") full of filthy, smelly clothes awaiting laundering. When the jealous Ford returns to try and catch his wife with the knight, the wives have the basket taken away and the contents (including Falstaff) dumped into the river. Although this affects Falstaff's pride, his ego is surprisingly resilient. He is convinced that the wives are just "playing hard to get" with him, so he continues his pursuit of sexual advancement, with its attendant capital and opportunities for blackmail.Again Falstaff goes to meet the women but Mistress Page comes back and warns Mistress Ford of her husband's approach again. They try to think of ways to hide him other than the laundry basket which he refuses to get into again. They trick him again, this time into disguising himself as Mistress Ford's maid's obese aunt, known as "the fat woman of Brentford". Ford tries once again to catch his wife with the knight but ends up beating the "old woman", whom he despises, and throwing her out of his house. Black and blue, Falstaff laments his bad luck.Eventually the wives tell their husbands about the series of jokes they have played on Falstaff, and together they devise one last trick which ends up with the Knight being humiliated in front of the whole town. They tell Falstaff to dress as "Herne, the Hunter" and meet them by an old oak tree in Windsor Forest (now part of Windsor Great Park). They then dress several of the local children, including Anne and William Page, as fairies and get them to pinch and burn Falstaff to punish him. Page plots to dress Anne in white and tells Slender to steal her away and marry her during the revels. Mistress Page and Doctor Caius arrange to do the same, but they arrange Anne shall be dressed in green. Anne tells Fenton this, and he and the Host arrange for Anne and Fenton to be married instead.The wives meet Falstaff, and almost immediately the "fairies" attack. Slender, Caius, and Fenton steal away their brides-to-be during the chaos, and the rest of the characters reveal their true identities to Falstaff.Although he is embarrassed, Falstaff takes the joke surprisingly well, as he sees it was what he deserved. Ford says he must pay back the 20 pounds 'Brook' gave him and takes the Knight's horses as recompense. Slender suddenly appears and says he has been deceived –the 'girl' he took away to marry was not Anne but a young boy. Caius arrives with similar news –however, he has actually married his boy! Fenton and Anne arrive and admit that they love each other and have been married.Fenton chides the parents for trying to force Anne to marry men she did not love and the parents accept the marriage and congratulate the young pair. Eventually they all leave together and Mistress Page even invites Falstaff to come with them: "let us every one go home, and laugh this sport o'er by a country fire; Sir John and all".II, thematic and theatrical functionsKey themes of Merry Wives include love and marriage, jealousy and revenge, conflicts in social class and wealth. Explored with irony, sexual innuendo, sarcasm, and stereotypical views of classes and nationalities, these themes help to give the play something closer to a modern-day view than is often found in Shakespeare's plays.The Merry Wives of Windsor, as its name suggests, mainly highlights the female, especially the women in the Windsor, including Mrs Ford and Mrs Page are the soul female character who have comedic conflicts with Falstaff, the main male character. Mrs Ford and Mrs Page are beautiful, cheerful and clever, who have a new moral standard. They fight for the liberation of personality, equality between men and women, have their own views towards marriage and love, romantic but not frivolous. They set a serial of traps to fight against the patriarchal society and the double insult and the persecution of women: one is the evil deeds of evil Falstaff and his ilk, one is Mr Ford’s jealousy.These two women are optimistic meanwhile strict with themselves, sticking up for the dignity of women, fighting the battle of wits and courage. After receiving the love letters from Falstaff, their reaction are almost the same. Mrs. Page makes a joke about this: " Never receive any letters when I was young and beautiful, now there's someone sending love letter to me ?" After she read the letter, things didn’t go as Falstaff imagined, Mrs.Page didn’t appreciate him, quite on the contrary, she rethink herself about what caused Falstaff’s misunderstanding and planned to teach this ungrateful fellow a lesson. When Mrs. Ford received the letter, she immediately found Mrs.Page, also makes a joke of this "If I’m happy to go to hell, I can be knighted". Then she also planned to make a revenge on Falstaff. The ladies began their "revenge" after knowing Falstaff's intentions, and there the comedy began to expand, which is absolutely out of F alstaff’s plan.In the whole process of the revenge, two ladies showed their bravery and resourceful mind, even the suspicious and jealous Mr Ford was being tricked at the same time. At that period, women still live under the male chauvinism, however, Mrs Ford is an independent and strong woman knows how to defend her dignity, thus won a big victory during the fight with Falstaff and her husband.In "the Merry Wives of Windsor" Miss Ann Page and the servantMistress Quickly also occupy a certain weight, Ann has the characteristics of the new era women who is not satisfied with the marriages that parents arrange for and brave enough to pursue her own love and seeking the freedom of marriage with her wisdom and courage. The servant Mistress Quickly who is different from the other three women in the play, is a glib talker, in pursuit of her own interest, she deceives the three young men who are in love with Ann; also plays a key role in the process of the revenge towards Falstaff . She uses her own "quickly" mouth to lobby Falstaff, making him once again be deceived. She plays a key role in the whole drama and contributes to the comedy effect.III,significance and implication"The Merry Wives of Windsor" is not a typical comedy of Shakespeare, however, it is recognized as the style of Shakespeare. This is a concise, creative, tense comedy. Although Shakespeare finished this play within only fourteen days, it still has the same effects with other comedy shows, to some extent, even better. The comedy is more like a farce. Shakespeare’s comedy, is nothing but through various twists and turns then leads to a happy ending, this play, however, is not that circuitous, it's full of humor and joke, which can be recognized as the funniest play of Shakespeare’s comed ies. In the mean time, the play also gives a strong irony during the funny plot, which is another bigcharacteristic of the play.The play is centered on the class prejudices of middle-class England. The lower class is represented by characters such as Bardolph, Nym, and Pistol, and the upper class is represented by Sir John Falstaff and Master Fenton. Shakespeare uses both Latin and misused English to represent the attitudes and differences of the people of this era. For example, much humor is derived from the exaggerated accents of Dr. Caius and Sir Hugh Evans. For example, Caius speaks in an exaggerated French dialect ; when he finds out he has married a page instead of Mistress Anne he exclaims that he has married "oon garcon", and Evans speaks in a thick Welsh accent to the point that Falstaff complains that he "makes fritters of English". Much of the comedic effect of the play is derived from misunderstandings between characters.The key themes of Merry Wives include love and marriage, jealousy and revenge, social class and wealth. Explored with irony, sexual innuendo, sarcasm, and stereotypical views of classes and nationalities, these themes help to give the play something closer to a modern-day view than is often found in Shakespeare's plays.IV,conclusionThe tale of Falstaff attempting to seduce two mischievous Windsor ladies is a great affirmation of late middle-age. Falstaff may be an absurdbottom pincher, but it is cheering to think that long before Viagra or even Spanish Fly a fat old man could be depicted as so libidinous. From his lechery the play draws its energy and bounce. It's a great show for midsummer.The image shaped in the comedy "the Merry Wives of Windsor" has the features both boast and lying, and at the same time, fills with humor and optimism. Neither does Falstaff have the morality of honor nor a bad heart, which is a successful comedy image. In the feudal society, he dropped from aristocratic class to a normal civilian, he has good relations with both the prince and the thieves, the robbers,the prostitutes. He is a bankrupt feudal nobility -- Sir John Falstaff. Carried with him are strong characteristics of the feudal parasitic life : be fond of wine, indulge in sensual pleasures. He is a soldier, however lacks of the concept of honor and brave as a feudal knight . At the same time, he lived in a transition phase which develops from feudal society to modern and civilized society, he d oesn’t have the initiative of the new townspeople class but contracts their sense of optimism and self enjoyment. He makes a living on flattery, bragging and laughter. Through his activities, Shakespeare shows the audience a wide social background from royal palace to hotels, brothels, a colorful civilian society, which provides a broad, vivid, rich background for shaping the image and setting the conflicts in the play. WhenFalstaff appears in the play "Henry IV", he is known as an ugly mountain thief and one of the idle prince's intimate partner, however, in the "Merry Wives of Windsor", he is already an ugly old man, but age didn’t affect his carnality, thus the audience can see him in this play still as an old goat. So for a long time, he is crowned with "immorality" and "parasites". However,on the other hand Shakespeare tries to shape Falstaff with affection as a firm individualism and hedonism, which is a representative of strong personal realization mode and the value during the Renaissance period . "For their own lives is the choice" was his creed. He paid attention to the real world, praised life, no one can intervene in his faith. However, what is worth exploring is that such a blowing, being indulged in prostitution, robbing, cheating and evil character should cause audience’s hatred, but on the contrary, people who live around him didn’t put him in prison, even a little fond of him, the true essence on him is Falstaffian spirits. During the Renaissance, humanism and personal liberation were advocated, asceticism on the other hand, is opposed , people advocate life against the worship of the divine, believe in science and practice. As one of a member in the transition period, Falstaff was also influenced by the Renaissance. These characters are similar with the optimism of the earlyemerging bourgeois.The distinctive character of Falstaff gives off a new atmosphere in the age of humanism."The Merry Wives of Windsor" is a quite different kind of comedy. It shows the audience the Renaissance impact on Shakespeare in a quite relaxed and pleasant atmosphere, Shakespeare praises the braveness of people who want to break the feudal fetters and traditional habits,endless struggles for marriage and love freedom.。