The Merry Wives of Windsor (Vol. 38) | Christiane Gallenca (essay date 1985)
Christiane Gallenca (essay date 1985)
SOURCE: "Ritual and Folk Custom in The Merry Wives of Windsor," in Cahiers Elisabethains, Vol. 27, April, 1985, pp. 27-41.
[Below, Gallenca details the role of folklore and ritual in The Merry Wives of Windsor, and asserts that the play "is based on those rituals which . . . celebrate the passage from Winter to Spring, from death to life. " ]
Ambiguity seems essential to The Merry Wives of Windsor [MW]1; it is an extension of the ambiguity of the previous play, Henry IV. Traditionally viewed as a comedy rapidly composed in response to Queen Elizabeth's desire to see Falstaff in love (the legend d ies hard), MW has been considered as a series of scenes with no real plot, or alternatively as the juxtaposition of three separate plots.2 The most indulgent critics have stressed the dominant position of the farcical elements3and the...
[The entire page is 7880 words long]
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