Falstaff's Ambivalent Role

Anthony Sher as Falstaff

A Sack Full of Sin: Falstaff’s Excess as Hal’s Trial in

Henry IV part I & 2

Royal Shakespeare Company

plan

duality

grotesque characterization

thesis statement

Introduction

Falstaff and the Weight of His Name

In what ways does Falstaff's physical and moral decay mirror his symbolic role as the embodiment of the moral challenges Hal faces in his journey to kingship ?

1. The Carnival Body: Falstaff’s Corporeal Excess
2. A Sack Full on Tongues : Falstaff's Verbal Excess
3. Laughing and Falling: The Ambivalence of Falstaff’s Role

Personification of excess & glutonny

The Carnival Body: Falstaff’s Corporeal Excess

A Sack Full on Tongues : Falstaff's Verbal Excess

Laughing and Falling: The Ambivalence of Falstaff’s Role

Closing Question

Recap

• Falstaff’s Physicality:

A symbol of excess and vice, rooted in Bakhtin’s concept of the grotesque.

• Falstaff’s Verbal Excess:

His uncontrolled tongue, humor, lies, and flattery as tools for comic relief and manipulation.

• Falstaff’s Ambivalent Role:

Transitioning from a companion to a necessary sacrifice, representing Hal’s moral transformation.

"Is Henry IV ultimately a lesson on morality?"

Thank you.

Conclusion

Bibliography

Falstaff as Prince Hal“If sack and sugar be 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: if to be fat be to be hated, then Pharaoh's lean kine are to be loved.” (Henry IV, Part I , II, 4., l.487)

• entertain & deflect

“FALSTAFF 'Sblood, you starveling, you elf-skin, you dried neat's tongue, you bull's-pizzle, you stockfish! O for breath to utter what is like thee! You tailor's-yard, you sheath, you bow-case, you vile standing tuck!” (1H4 II.iv.240 - 243)

Swearing

“FALSTAFFGod save thee, my sweet boy!” (Henry IV, Part II, V, 5., l.42)

“sweet boy”

"sweet wag"

• Falstaff uses humor and verbal sparring to bond with Hal.
• Falstaff’s affection for Hal often takes a fatherly tone.

The Jolly Companion

Prince Hal "This sanguine coward, this bed-presser, this horse-back-breaker." (Henry IV, Part I, II, 4., l.251) Prince Hal as the King “Why dost thou converse with that trunk of humours, that bolting-hutch of beastliness, that swollen parcel of dropsies, that huge bombard of sack, that stuffed cloak-bag of guts, that roasted Manningtree ox with the pudding in his belly, that reverend vice, that grey iniquity, that father ruffian, that vanity in Years?” (Henry IV, Part I, II, 4., l. 465-471)

“KING I know thee not, old man” (Henry IV, Part 2, IV, 5., l.47)

The Final Rejection

Foreshadowing of Falstaff’s Rejection

“FALSTAFF AS PRINCE HAL ...Banish plump Jack, and banish all the world. PRINCE HAL I do, I will.” (Henry IV, Part 1, II, 4., l.497-498)

Key Moment: The Battle of Shrewsbury (Henry IV, Part 1, Act 5, Scene 4)

Diverging Paths in Part 1

Falstaff’s Fall: Or The Necessary Sacrifice

Symbolic Role of Falstaff's Fall

• Falstaff’s rejection represents Hal’s rejection of vice, irresponsibility, and excess.

“HAL Do thou stand for my father and examine me upon the particulars of my life. FALSTAFF Shall I? Content. [He sits down.] This chair shall be my state, this dagger my scepter, and this cushion my crown. HAL Thy state is taken for a joined stool, thy golden scepter for a leaden dagger, and thy precious rich crown for a pitiful bald crown.” (Henry IV, Part I, II, 4., l.387-393)

Mockery of Royalty Through Absurdity

Falstaff’s Final Plea: "FALSTAFF My king, my Jove, I speak to thee, my heart!" (Henry IV, Part 2, V, 5., l.46)

Falstaff’s Cynicism About Honor

"FALSTAFF ... Can honour set to a leg? no: or an arm? No. Or take away the grief of a wound? No. Honour hath no skill in surgery, then? No. What is honour? A word. What is in that word honour? What is that honour? Air. A trim reckoning!” (Henry IV, Part I, V., 2 l.130-136)

“FALSTAFF Men of all sorts take a pride to gird at me. The brain of this foolish-compounded clay, man, is not able to invent anything that intends to laughter more than I invent, or is invented on me; I am not only witty in myself, but the cause that wit is in other men.” (Henry IV Part II, I, 2. l.6-11)

Falstaff’s Role as a Moral Challenge

• Blends flattery and mockery

“FALSTAFF Thou hast the most unsavoury similes, and art indeed the most comparative rascalliest sweet young Prince.” (Henry IV, Part 1, I, 2., l.79 -81)

Flattery

"FALSTAFF I am a rogue if I were not at half-sword with a dozen of them two hours together. I have ’scaped by miracle. I am eight times thrust through the doublet, four through the hose, my buckler cut through and through, my sword hacked like a handsaw. Ecce signum! I never dealt better since I was a man. All would not do. A plague of all cowards! Let them speak. [Pointing to Gadshill, Bardolph, and Peto.] If they speak more or less than truth, they are villains, and the sons of darkness. (Henry IV, Part 1, II, 4., l.159-167)

The Anathomie of Sinne

"it is enclosed with a quicke-set and strong rampier teeth and gummies, and with lippes which are gates to shut it uppe."

Chief Justice “Sir John, Sir John, I am well acquainted with your manner of wrenching the true cause the false way. It is not a confident brow, nor the throng of words that come with such more than impudent sauciness from you, can thrust me from a level consideration.” (Henry IV, Part 2, II, 1.,l.107-112)

Verbal Excess