Shakespeare And Falstaff Relationship Essay

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How does Shakespeare present the encounter between Falstaff and The Lord Chief Justice? An Essay on Act I, Scene II of Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part II In the second act of the first scene of the play, Shakespeare presents two characters: Sir John Falstaff (“Falstaff”), a character who represents vice and disorder, and The Lord Chief Justice (“Justice”), who represents goodness, law and order (as his name suggests). The relationship between them appears to be that of two men who don’t want to be involved with each other: this is certainly how it turns out as the two get involved in conversation. The first way that Shakespeare shows us what attitudes Falstaff and Justice will have towards each other is through Falstaff’s page. The page tells Falstaff, “‘here comes the nobleman that committed the prince for striking him about Bardolph’”. Falstaff is, essentially, relying on his page to keep him out of trouble, and Justice is the man who…show more content…
Upon Falstaff being brought by the Servant to Justice, Falstaff begins to criticise Justice and his Servant for summoning him, and in doing this he takes advantage of Justice’s feelings about being loyal to the King and his laws. The exact words that Falstaff uses are, “‘a young knave and begging? Is there not wars? Is there not employment? Doth the king not lack subjects? Do not the rebels need soldiers?’”, the last of these questions revealing Falstaff’s views on the King, being only as important and as powerful as the rebels, his side being equally prestigious to fight on as the rebels’, in the times of war and monarchical troubles that the play is set in. Falstaff appears to believe that throughout the world, the best course of action under any circumstances is to take advantage of the situation (contrary to Justice’s opinions: remaining loyal to King and
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