In Act 4, Scene 2 Mistress Ford and Page, the titular merry wives of the play, subject Falstaff to the second of their tricks and humiliations. In this scene they trick Falstaff into dressing up as a woman, the Old Woman of Brentford, whom Mr. Ford despises because he alleges she is a witch. Insensed that the woman has appeared at his home despite his prohibition, he takes out his cudgel and gives her a good beating. Falstaff escapes undetected but in much pain and humiliation.
What are we to make of this scene, especially for a modern audience (readership)? What does this scene say about attitudes and values toward woman in Elizabethan England? How does this fit in with other scenes and speeches in the play? What does this say about the purpose of deceit and humiliation in the merry wive's tricks? How should a director depict this scene on stage (how much violence acted out and/or shown? How much of the curses should be spoken and how many cut) ?
In the Shakespearean comedy "The Merry Wives of Windsor", Falstaff is subjected to various bouts of humiliation at the hands of Mistress Ford and Page. However, during the second trick, Falstaff is disguised as Mistress's Ford's aunt's maid, a woman whom Master Ford despises because "He swears she's a witch" (4.2.86). In fact, he despises her so much that he ". . .forbade her my house, and hath threatened to beat her." (4.2.86-7) This is proven to be more than a threat as well, as he later beats Falstaff with a cudgel. This scene in particular serves as a window to the past of Elizabethan England, especially with their views of "witches" and, beyond that, women as a whole. We are told from this scene that women who are considered witches are seen as subhuman. This is evident as Ford beats Falstaff who is disguised as an old woman, spewing horrible words at her all the while.
ReplyDelete"A witch, a quean, an old cozening quean! Have I not forbid her my house? She comes of errands, does she? We are simple men; we do not know what's brought to pass under the profession of fortune-telling. She works by charms, by spells, by th' figure, and such daubery as this is, beyond our element. We know nothing.-- Come down, you witch, you hag, you! Come down, I say!
. . . I'll pratt her. Out of my door, you witch, you rag, you baggage, you pole-cat, you runnion! Out, out! I'll conjure you, I'll fortune-tell you!" (4.2.171-86)
This scene not only shows Ford's personal biases, as he has clearly stated his distrust of Mistress Ford's aunt's maid, but also the general consensus of men overall. Throughout this entire beating, as Ford runs a seemingly old woman out of his house, none of the men with him (Page, Caius, Evans, and Shallow) do anything to object or intervene. In fact, the only one who defends Falstaff is Mistress Page, who complains: "Are you not ashamed? I think you have killed the poor woman." (4.2.187-8). Everyone else in the scene is either complicit at best (in the cases of Page, Shallow, etc.) or in agreement with Ford, such as Sir Hugh, who states: "By yea and no, I think the 'oman is a witch indeed. I like not when a 'oman has a great peard." (4.2.192-3). But the issue lies not with their perception of witches, but women. Because, throughout all the scene, Falstaff says not a word to defend himself. This allows us to interpret that, had it truly been Mistress Ford's aunt's maid, they wouldn't have allowed her to get a word in and would've, as Mistress Page aptly put it, killed her outright. This (quite literal) witch hunting presents the ideology present during this time of "act now, ask questions later" when it comes to women's rights and safety.
Google Docs link (in order to view proper italics formatting and sources):
ReplyDeletehttps://docs.google.com/document/d/1SxB6_Z5f6PmubrBpCc44qGyLe-YewXy_Wv6xD1qn5HM/edit?usp=sharing
During the Shakespearean comedy play, “The Merry Wives of Windsor”, we have a major character, Falstaff, that goes through many different tricks and forms of humiliation by Mistress Page and Mistress Ford. One such instance is when he is dressed up as the Old Woman of Brentford to disguise himself, who is thought to be a witch by Mr. Ford, and thus he hates her for it, threatening to beat her in the past. When Mr. Ford does come upon Falstaff in the disguise of the Old Woman of Brentford, he does end up beating her with a cudgel, and while he doesn’t end up discovering Falstaff, it does prove his stance upon how he was to treat a woman whom he only believes to be a witch. This shows the audience about how easy it was for someone to properly get away with beating anyone claimed to be a witch, and then get away with it. Mr. Ford receives no punishment, or is never properly reprimanded, for wanting to beat an old woman, which is only another example of the light women were viewed in during Shakespeare’s lifetime, as there were little to no values against beating women accused of being witches. This was majorly flawed also, as women accused of being witches generally didn’t need any proper proof to be accused, meaning any woman could be accused and then beaten or killed, without much justice as to reprimand the killer. Fitting in with other speeches and scenes in the play, it serves as only another example of Mr. Ford being irrational, and is played off as such despite how we would view it in the modern day.
ReplyDeleteThis scene clearly shows that women in Elizabethan England were treated poorly. I think this is most clearly shown by the fact that no one comes to the disguised Falstaff's aid. Instead, only Mistress Page asks Ford, “Are you not ashamed?” (4.2.187). However, we soon learn that this remark was in jest because, only a few lines later, Mistress Ford also calls Ford’s actions “meritorious” (205). This point is made even clearer in the production we watched, as we see the actors give looks of un-amusement but not disapproval in response to Ford’s cudgeling. The wives even look giddy. While the production was not made and recorded not in Elizabethan times, I think its traditional approach to things shows that in Elizabethan times, this type of treatment of women was common. However, I think most people could have guessed that women were generally treated poorly in Elizabethan times. The much more interesting question is what the play comments about this treatment. Sadly, I think the play also does not challenge this treatment. As mentioned earlier, there is no direct comment on the morality of Ford’s Cudgeoling of Falstaff. However, the whole setup of the scene does make a comment. The scene is meant to be one of the many humorous scenes in the comedy. In fact, this scene is arguably meant to be one of the funniest, if not the most funny, scenes. The fact that the audience is supposed to laugh at the potential beating of some poor old women shows that the play does not challenge such behavior. In fact, this suggests that the play probably supported such poor treatment.
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