The Merry Wives of Windsor

"This is the short and long of it."

Read | Questions | Resources | Links | Films | Papers | Back


Read

  • the entire play, before reading the introduction in the text
    (HINT: If you find yourself getting mixed up on the names, or wondering who did what to whom, look at this brief plot synopsis and commentary or go by the library and get ahold of a short summary from MASTERPLOTS to refer to as you read the play.)
  • skim over the focal questions below before you start reading to play to help you notice important features of the play
  • read the text's introduction to the play
  • read the student summary of the Northrop Frye's "The Argument of Comedy"
  • read the information about fairies in English folklore and relate it to the final trick played upon Falstaff in the forest. You can also consult a list of Fairy References in the Works of Shakespeare!
  • read the discussion entitled "The Folk Ritual of 'Carrying out Death'--Purging the Scapegoat?"

    Questions

    (1) Do you find in this play any of the typical characters and plot situations from classical comedy?

    (2) Which characters in the play are portrayed as "humours" characters (a character who has a single dominant characteristic)? What are these characters obsessed with? How does Shakespeare use their speech and physical characteristics to aid his characterizations?

    (3) What elements of farce do you find in the play?

    (4) Who are the "manipulators" in this play, the ones who arrange the intrigues and tricks? How do they get others to go along with their plots?

    (5) In what instances does dramatic irony occur in the play? (Remember that dramatic irony occurs when the audience knows what is going on, but one of the characters doesn't.)

    (6) Why does Slender so desperately wish he had his book of Songs and Sonnets with him (I.i.)?

    (7) What different kinds of love relationships exist in the play? How do they contrast to provide insight into each other?

    (8) What different kinds of "knavery" exist in this play? Which are the worst? Which are merely ridiculous?

    (9) How does the use of disguise in the play contribute to its humor?

    (10) What is the joke implicit in Falstaff's being made to wear horns on his head?

    (11) Is Falstaff's "punishment" at the end of the play severe or good-natured? Does it succeed in bringing about poetic justice?

    (12) What is the common denominator of the two different plots in the play? Do they reflect upon one another?

    (13) Is the setting in this play significant? Does any movement from one place to another take on symbolic meaning, as it does in A Midsummer Night's Dream?

    (14) Is the function of the fairies in this play the same as it is in A Midsummer Night's Dream?

    (15) Which characters serve as foils to each other in the play?

    (16) Which character[s] have the most normative vision (the most balanced outlook on the other characters and happenings)?

    (17) Does the ending of the play make it any less a comedy? Does this play fit into Frye's definition of comedy as outlined in his essay?

    (18) What is Shakespeare's attitude in this play toward love? lust? jealousy? pedantic or pretentious learning?

    Films

  • Paintings of scenes from the play from the Emory University collection

    Resources

    Links

    Papers

    Paper assignments that would work well with this play include Opening Scene Analysis and Play Adaptation.