Falstaff, play acting as Prince Hal, gives an argument that the King should forgive Falstaff his foibles and not banish him from the Prince's company:
If sack and sugarbe 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 . . . Banish plump Jack, and banish
all the world. (Henry IV, Part 1 2.4.487-90; 497-8)
damned . . . Banish plump Jack, and banish
all the world. (Henry IV, Part 1 2.4.487-90; 497-8)
In this speech Falstaff positions himeself as an Everyman, a stock character from medieval morality plays that stands in for the ordinary person with all his faults and foibles who is susceptible to temptations. Yet is he the tempted -- or the tempter? Is he an Everyman, or another character from medieval morality plays: Vice. Vice is the personification of all the deadly sins: pride, gluttony, and cowardice among them. He is a comic figure because ultimately one cannot succeed with such vices. Yet, he is a dangerous prescence nonetheless.
Or is he more like another character from Christmas celebrations: The Lord of Misrule. The Lord of Misrule was a peasant chosen to preside over the Feast of Fools when drinking and unreuly partying was the norm. Such a figure personifies the overturning of hierarchies and the subverting of authority, both political and religioius and personal.
Can you see Falstaff in any of these figures? All of them? What is the enduring appeal of such a inveterate knave as Falstaff?
I think there's a bit of Falstaff in all of these ideas. In a way he's quite literally an everyman, if you saw him on the street you might do a double take, but it is what it is. While defending himself from criticism by Prince Hal he says, "Banish plump Jack, and banish all the world," Act 2, Scene 4. What he means by that is simply that if you get rid of him you're getting rid of a part of humanity, what he represents. What he represents is the flaws that all of the world has, and you can't just get rid of them. I can't really call him a vice however. If this was the seven deadly sins he'd either by gluttony or deceit. Though if you think about he's not represented as a bad person necessarily, he's just him and he's funny. Therefore I don't think he's truly a vice or a negative, just maybe misunderstood? He's also the Lord of Misrule, he pushes societies norms for both his own benefit, and just to ask the question of why not? Challenges authority where he sees it, and doesn't like to follow the established order of things. For those reasons I see him as a very complex character that can't fit in just one archetype.
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