An analysis of the characters of Sir John Falstaff
Name: 何荣慧 Class: 2010级英语教育（6）班 No.: 20100120021017
Introduction
Sir John Falstaff is one of the famous figures in Shakespeare’s Henry Ⅳ. He is a very complicated character. He is the prince drinking buddy, both optimistic and humorous boaster and a liar, neither the concept of moral honor nor bad heart. Meanwhile, he lives in the people from feudal society to the modern period of social transition, he did not aggressive new public class, but infected with a happy optimism and their lf-enjoyment, he ud the kidding and laugh, fun to ek life. He reprents a lot of feudal retainer who were thrown out of noble houholds in the period of the breaking up of old feudal relation and the forming of new bourgeois ones. In order to make people know Falstaff more clearly and objectively, this paper eks to find out characters of Falstaff. The first part is to introduce the image of Falstaff. The cond part is to find out the caus of shaping the character of Falstaff .
The last part is comments on Sir John Falstaff.
Ⅰ.The image of Sir John Falstaff
Sir John Falstaff is one of the most brilliant creations in Shakespeare’s plays. He was a courtly page and a solider when his young days. But after he has lost his estates and become an adventurer and parasite. Falstaff is fat , old, ugly, gross, and guilty of many sins. He is Prince Hal’s boon companion. There is much fun in his drunken revels with Henry in the Boar’s Head Tavern, in his torrents of lies and boasts. Lies sprout out of him like mushrooms on a rich and rotten bed of earth. He says he has fought alone against two man. The next moment it is four. Prently we have ven, the eleven, then fourteen. He is stopped in time, or he would soon be talking of a whole army. When unmasked, he does not lo his temper, and is the first to laugh at his own boasting.
Falstaff is lfish, treacherous and cynical. He does not hesitate in the least to ek profit whenever there is a chance. When commissioned to recruit a company
for the army, he pricks for rvice rich citizens, but allows them to buy out their rvices, so that his pockets might be filled with bribes. In the end he leads to the battlefield a pack of old soldiers, discarded rvants, stablemen and paupers. He speaks of them heartlessly:无锡英语翻译＂Tut ,tut; good enough to toss; food for powder, food for powder; they’ll fill a pit as well as better: tush, man, mortal men.＂(Henry Ⅳ,partⅠ,Ⅳ.3.)
Falstaff comes to the battlefield without illusions. In contrast with Hotspur, “the flower of the chivalry to England,” who is ready “ to pluck bright honor, i.e. the honor of the decaying aristocracy, “ from the pale---fac’d moon,” Falstaff, the poverty---stricken knight and adventurer, is altogether practical. He comes to the battlefield and, finding a nobleman lying dead on the ground ,say:＂I like not such gringo honor as Sir Walter hath ; give me life ; which if I can save ; if not ,honor comestible unlooked for, and there’s an end.＂为你服务 He philosophizes on honor in a well-known soliloquy:“Can honor t to a leg? no or an arm? No .or take away the grief of a wound? no. honor hath no skill in surgery, then? no. What is honor? A wo
rd. What is that word, honor? Air .A trim reckoning! Who hath it? he that died o’Wednesday. Doth he feel it? no. Doth he hear it? no. It is innsible, then? Yea, to the dead. But will it not live with the living? no. Why? detraction will not suffer it. Therefore I’ll have none of it; honor is a mere scutcheon; and so ends my catechism.”（PartⅠ.传达英文Ⅴ.1.）This contempt for the honor of noble class was a striking feature of the period of the decline of feudalism and the ri of the bourgeoisie. On the battlefield, when one of the rebels attacks him, he falls down to play dead. He lies beside the slain Hostpur. The Prince Hal returns and gives an epitaph on Falstaff.At the moment, Falstaff spring to life and pretends to have killed Hotspur himlf. His motto is:“瑞思英语怎么样The better part of valour is discretion.” He is so carefree and witty in his rascality that he has a charm of his own.
In fact, Falstaff is a very innocent man. After the battle he return to the Boar’s head again. As soon an he hears of the news that Prince Hal has ascended the throne, Falstaff goes to London, confident of his warm reception by the new King. But he is wrong. Henry , to be a successful king, must repudiate Falstaff. 西式糕点学习
bounded研究生招生报名Ⅱ毕业证认证. Caus of shaping the character of Falstaff
少儿知识A. Social Background
The history of knight must be traced back the A.D 800, the kingdom Charlemagne unifies Western Europe, and he is called “great Roman emperor”. From that time there appears a very special class-knight, they take the uniform for military obligation and rve as the condition to obtain kingdom or the big feudal lord. The knight is quite noble but the glory position, therefore the man wants to become the knight on condition that he comes from aristocratic family. At the same time, in order to study each kind of culture and the tactics, and to learn the decent manners all knights must accept all kinds of training when they are children. But the birth of Falstaff is not casual. For one thing, at his time the knight system has been decayed and the humanism is in the embryonic stage, Falstaff reprents the special class that be deemed to die, becau he does not want to do anything for themlves and idle about, although the ideas of feudal system still has been roote
d in people’ mind. For another thing, the Renaissance has been emerged at that time. During the period of the Renaissance, in order to pursue the happiness and freedom the human beings has started to throw off their shackles which has fixed them one generation after one generation. Falstaff is a typical example. Though he is a knight, he does not care about social regulation, and does do what he wants, all this reflects the happy and lovable climate. So the complex and contradictory characters of Falstaff are formed by his class status and social condition.
B. Psychological Factor
Most people usually consider that individual characters have two aspects. The one is the actions in reality which often reflect the human beings’ practice, the another is motive of actions which reprent the mental movement. the psychologists regard the characters of human beings as formed by two basic requirements, which are nature purpo and cultural purpo. Falstaff is a knight and has decent status, in order to live and get the love he has to talk big, tell lies and often be tead by others. Without tho things, the characters of Falstaff cannot make a de
ep impression in people’s mind.
Ⅲ. Comments on Sir John Falstaff
Different people hold different views on the character of Falstaff. Falstaff is the product of a transition period when feudal ties are being dissolved and the capitalist society is not yet in birth. He is no longer a feudal lord, yet he cannot become a capitalist. He is only a social parasite, moving about with a big belly, eating, drinking, and doing nothing.
