Falstaff
So, I am making great progress on my reading of Henry IV. I should be finished with the whole play tomorrow, which makes me very happy. I have enjoyed reading the work, but it has made me realize how hard Shakespeare can be to understand! I am finding that I have to read some passages two to three times to actually understand them! I guess understanding comes with time, patience and practice.
Here are some of my thoughts on misogyny in the play (learning outcome #2a and 2b):
During my reading of Henry IV, I have noticed many subtle misogynistic remarks in the work. The first one that I noticed was on page 378 in a comment made by Hotspur to the King. In this conversation, Hotspur implies that a certain person questioned him with "ladyterms." While I understand what Hotspur meant by the comment, I feel that the comment is a put down to women and their way of speaking. I feel that by using this term Shakespeare is implying that the terms ladies used were more dainty than intelligent.
Later in the work, Falstaff speaks very poorly to a Hostess to whom he owes money. In their conversation on page 398 Falstaff makes the following misogynistic remark: "There's no faith in thee than in a stewed prune, nor no more truth in thee than in a drawn fox; and for womanhood, Maid Marian may be the deputy's wife of the ward to thee. Go, you thing go." Obviously, this is a very harsh comment directed toward the hostess. I feel that this remark shows how many men felt towards women in Shakespeare's time. He refers to her as a thing which shows that he feels as though she is of little worth.
Lastly, in the same conversation, Falstaff continues to insult the Hostess by making sexual jokes about her. On page 399 he says the following: "She's neither fish nor flesh; a man knows not where to have her." By comparing the Hostess to an animal, Falstaff shows that he thinks and respects her as much as he does an animal. Also, this comment can be seen as a sexual innuendo that implies that all she is good for is sex.
I plan on looking for more examples of misogynistic remarks as I finish the play.
