Falstaff Guides (2025)

FAQs

Why is Falstaff so important? ›

His significance as a fully developed character is primarily formed in the plays Henry IV, Part 1 and Part 2, where he is a companion to Prince Hal, the future King Henry V of England. Falstaff is also featured as the buffoonish suitor of two married women in The Merry Wives of Windsor.

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His Falstaffery is made out of language: “If sack and sugar be a fault, God help the wicked! If to be old and merry be a sin, then many an old host that I know is damned: If to be fat be to be hated, then … banish plump Jack, and banish all the world.”

Sir John Falstaff, one of the most famous comic characters in all English literature, who appears in four of William Shakespeare's plays. Entirely the creation of Shakespeare, Falstaff is said to have been partly modeled on Sir John Oldcastle, a soldier and the martyred leader of the Lollard sect.

What is the story? Falstaff is based on Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor, with scenes from the Henry IV plays too. Caddish knight Sir John Falstaff has fallen on hard times and schemes to get his hands on some cash by seducing two wealthy wives of Windsor: Alice Ford and Meg Page.

Falstaff himself has very few morals in the traditional sense of the word. It seems that almost all of his actions are directed at his own betterment. He has no moral objection to attacking and robbing travelling pilgrims – surely one of the least honourable deeds in the play.

noun. Fal·​staff ˈfȯl-ˌstaf. : a fat, convivial, roguish character in Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor and Henry IV.

That flexibility and dominance of the character—even in his theatrical death—speak to the vitality and enormity of Falstaff as a literary figure.

Falstaff himself has very few morals in the traditional sense of the word. It seems that almost all of his actions are directed at his own betterment. He has no moral objection to attacking and robbing travelling pilgrims – surely one of the least honourable deeds in the play.

But if modern theatre has taught us anything it is that Falstaff is Shakespeare's greatest comic creation and at the same time one of his most deeply tragic.

Why does Henry reject Falstaff? ›

The rejection is inevitable because Falstaff represents disorder. His triumph would mean the victory of anarchy over order, stability and justice.