The Multi-dimensional Falstaff-A Study Of His Character And Personality

Falstaff is a clown in Shakespeare's historian Henry IV, Henry V and comedy The Merry Wives of Windsor, a companion to Prince Hal. His sense of humour lessens cruelty of the war; his idleness sets off Hal's political achievement after he becomes Henry V. He plays a rather important role in these plays, and thus, studies and critics about Falstaff have been come out for hundreds of years. The thesis proposes that the complexity of Falstaff lies on the following three points:first, he is oppressed by the monarchy but his life attitude is negative and shameful, which is contradictory with his social status; second, his ideology represents those who are oppressed. He has to see a sanctuary to escape from the miserable lives, which is a common way for the oppressed people to find a spiritual refugee. Thus, his blind optimism has both common characteristics and unique ones, but the two of them are contradictory either; third, when Shakespeare creates Henry IV and Henry V, England is under the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, at that time, England starts its industrial revolution and oversea expansion; British citizens are leading a peaceful and prosperous life, but how could Falstaff's life be so miserable and foul? It seems as if his character and the surroundings born this character are contradictory.Falstaff is so complicated that it might not work with the traditional one-fold way to analyze his character due to the various contradictions. Thus, the present thesis builds his character as a whole and a system in which all the ingredients can combine and cooperate with each other effectively.The first chapter introduces Falstaff's social status and the important roles he has played in Henry IV, Henry V and The Merry Wives of Windsor; then the present thesis makes a relevant literature review and finds out the problems on the methodology issue.The second chapter discusses the natural ingredient of Falstaff's character which is the basic element that makes one character distinctive. By several pairs of contradictory aspects of his character, I want to prove that Falstaff has dual personality so that he retreats the essence of his nature to his inner heart and exists in his imaginative world on the one hand; on the other, he dies out his ambitions to adjust to the villainous surroundings. So, I generalize three aspects of the natural ingredient of Falstaff's character:dual personality, self-retreat and ambitions loss.The third chapter discusses the functional ingredient of Falstaff's character. Falstaff gets his everlasting charm as time moves on by different readers all over the world. First, his blind optimism reflects the national defeatism of various classes; second, his servility is a common phenomenon representing the characteristics of a nation; third, his weird action and witty language disclose the absurdity of the world.The forth chapter discusses the social ingredient of Falstaff's character. Falstaff, the complicated artistic figure, should be put into a larger world from the viewpoint of philosophy, politics, sociology, history, psychology and so on so forth.Though Falstaff is primarily a comic figure, he still embodies a kind of depth common to Shakespeare's tricky comedy. In his death scene, Mistress Quickly describes his body in the way that echoes the death of Socrates. Like Socrates, he finally releases and understands the true meaning of life when he dies.