Falstaff`s gluttony, lust, avarice, sloth and pride in Henry IV part I

Iliev, Krste (2021) Falstaff`s gluttony, lust, avarice, sloth and pride in Henry IV part I. SEEU Review, 16 (2). pp. 69-79. ISSN 2021-0019

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Abstract

This paper aims at looking at Shakespeare`s character Falstaff through the prism of
some of the seven deadly sins. The paper doesn`t claim that it explores all the sins present in
Falstaff`s personality. The main sins that this paper examines in Falstaff`s personality are the
sins of gluttony, lust, avarice, sloth, and pride. The presence of so many sins in the personality
of one character that are interconnected is known as concatenation of sins. As Bernard Spivack
(1958) and David Wiles (1987) have explained, in many ways Falstaff serves as the Vice figure
from the morality plays tempting Prince Hal. Since in the morality plays the Vice figure stems
and is associated mainly to the seven deadly sins, this paper will try to show that the fact that
Falstaff possesses so many sins can facilitate the possibility of him being identified as stemming from the Vice figure from the morality plays. I will try to find each of the aforementioned sins by analyzing Falstaff actions and inactions and by trying to find characteristics of the sins present in Falstaff`s behavior. This paper will also look at Falstaff`s fate and whether there is any similarity between the fate of the Vice figure in the morality plays and the fate of Falstaff in the second part.
Key words: seven deadly sins, concatenation of sins, Vice figure, Falstaff

Item Type:	Article
Subjects:	Humanities > Languages and literature
Divisions:	Faculty of Philology
Depositing User:	Krste Iliev
Date Deposited:	13 Mar 2023 05:56
Last Modified:	13 Mar 2023 05:56
URI:	https://eprints.ugd.edu.mk/id/eprint/31540

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