Falstaff is very callous, in Act three Scene three Falstaff reminiscences of better days and takes out his anger on Bardolph, been vicious and cruel criticising his face. In the same scene he is nasty to the hostess, blaming her for the picking of his pocket and calling her a woman, therefore unreliable. However a much more darker side shows when he leads his, “ragamuffins to be peppered” in the battlefield and claiming that his men were food for powder and filled a pit as well as any other men.
Dishonesty forms a key part in Falstaff’s life, in the Gadshill robbery Falstaff wanted to share the money out between the gang first and leaving the smaller amount for Poins and Hal to share. Also in the tavern when a bill from his pocket was stolen, Falstaff accuses the hostess of stealing sums of money and a seal ring from his grandfather. Also one can see the dishonesty in Act five Scene three, when Falstaff claimed that he had killed already Percy and that he has put his pistol up to let it cool after much action, when it was a bottle of sack all along. His craven character is again shown when he stabs Percy's dead thigh, picks up the already dead body and claims the kill as his own for a reward from the king. "I look to be either earl or duke, I can assure you."
Falstaff is immediately associated with excessive drinking when, the prince attacks him with scathing comments on his excesses. He has close ties with the Boar’s Head tavern, because he seemingly spends most of his time in there. Even in battle we see Falstaff clutching to his bottle of sack, while the battle rages on. However the most important thing was that although we know that he drinks to excess, we never actually see him dead drunk in the play.
Falstaff is unfit, idle and a glutton, when in Gadshill Falstaff truthfully says that, “eight yards of uneven ground is threescore and ten miles afoot with me,” In the tavern when the prince had stolen Falstaff’s tavern bill, he saw to his horror that the beast had drunk 2 gallons of sack and ate copious quantities of food. He is so idle, that he has his gang do things for him, and he normally spends his days in the tavern been attended on by servants. Even when he is out robbing with his gang, he stands in a safe distance from the action, until it is time to split up the gains.
In the first dialogue between Falstaff and the prince, we see a lot of sexual innuendos been used, “hot wench in flame coloured taffeta,” and also when Falstaff attempts to divert the conversation in Act one Scene two, he comments that the, “hostess of the tavern…most sweet wench” obviously Falstaff suffers from sexual laxity.
Falstaff is a boaster, he boasted and exaggerated about the robbery at Gadshill, in the tavern Falstaff boasts that he would cudgel Hal if he said that the ring was made of copper, when in actual fact, Falstaff had to backtrack his threats as soon as Poins and Hal cane in. Also he boasts about about his own doings in the battle, “I have paid Percy, I have made him sure” while Percy was still alive and well. Indeed, when he realizes that Percy is alive, he vows that he will, “pierce him”.
Falstaff is hypocritical; he complains that, “a plague upon it when thieves cannot be true to each other,” yet when it comes to handing out the robbery’s gains, he is quite happy to miss out on Hal and Poins for a share of the booty. Falstaff is weak willed as well, when he says that he will reform, he never does, in the end of the play Falstaff promises to, “purge and leave sack, and live cleanly as a nobleman should do”. It is another of his repeated claims of promises.
Hal and Percy holds honour but Falstaff on the other hand seems to have no honour at all except what he himself fabricates, and ironically, his flexibility and relative ethics keep him alive. Falstaff shows himself to be a conniving, thieving rogue and not even particularly successful at the low pursuits he attempts. He, unlike Percy, dishonourably feigns death in battle and so escapes a fatal wound from Douglas. Shakespeare clearly wanted the audience to see the contrast when the two bodies are laid side by side in Act five Scene four, the climax of the play--one living by a harsh code of honour and dead, the other a Machiavellian cheat and very much alive.
Falstaff is as venal and craven as Hotspur is proud and unyielding. Falstaff reduces honour from a high chivalric concept to a useless item. “Can honour set to a leg? No…honour is a mere scutcheon”
Falstaff’s idea of honour is directly linked to his sense of time itself. In the opening lines of his speech, Falstaff says, “‘Tis not due yet: I would be loath to pay him before his day.” In this example, God is being related by Falstaff to someone who has set a schedule determining the time and place of everyone’s death. For Falstaff, one’s role in life is not to stray from the path created by that higher power. The notion of honour, as he later describes in this speech, is a belief through which one can transgress that natural order. He says, “Yea, but how if honour prick me off when I come on?” In order for one to gain honour, one must risk one’s life. This type of gambling is not for Falstaff, as he decides that his own life is more important than, “A word.”
Through his speech, Falstaff places himself firmly out of any moral world concerned with justice or honour, instead living for no other reason than life itself. He serves as an emblem of frivolity and carelessness within a world filled with social and political significance. Falstaff scorns the world of politics and moral decisions in favour of existing from moment to moment.
Falstaff has a number of functions in Henry IV, the most obvious as a clownish figure providing comic relief. His many lies and exaggerations entertain because of the wit and cleverness he employs to save himself from paying debts and answering for crimes. He in many ways represents a layman-a sinner with little shame or honour, who nonetheless maintains at least an outward concern for honour and appearances. "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 damn'd. . .. (Banish the others) but for sweet Jack Falstaff, kind Jack Falstaff, true Jack Falstaff, valiant Jack Falstaff . . . banish plump Jack, and banish all the world." Clearly, Falstaff hopes to exculpate himself by arguing that his sins are no worse than everyone else's.
He refuses to take life seriously. He believes that war is as much of a joke to him as drinking at the Boar's Head; indeed he brings his sack to the battle. He uses people solely for his own purposes, either for money or for food and drink. He is rude and crude to all those around him and is one of the best liars who continually gets caught in his lies but makes new ones to cover for the old failed ones. His presence of mind and quickness of rejoinder are always superb; his impudence is almost transcendent. “Sirrah, do I owe you a thousand pound?/A thousand pounds Hal? A million, thy love is worth a million, thou owest me thy love.”
Yet the man thus corrupt, thus despicable, makes himself necessary to the prince that despises him, by the most pleasing of all qualities, perpetual gaiety. Falstaff creates around his presence a sort of Utopia, which frees us temporarily from the worries, and troubles of the actual world and we can listen to the thoughts that we secretly have had, but stored in the backs of our mind. It does not matter if Falstaff jokes about bravery and valour, it is merely the thoughts of a comic creation designed to fill the theatre.
When at the end of the Boar's Head Tavern scene, when the viewer learns that the Sheriff is outside looking for the robbers, Prince Hal defends the fat knight. However, we find Falstaff soundly asleep behind an array. This scene shows how he was created for comic relief in the play. Yet the reader sees the Falstaff that was moments ago alive and energetic, now soundly asleep and we wait for the Falstaff to wake up because we have grown an attachment to him. We want him to humour us once again, to inspire us with his famous wit
Up to certain point Falstaff is merely an object of pure entertainment. His character is present chiefly for the humour that arises by showcasing his ludicrous persona. Besides laughing at Falstaff, we are made happy by him and laugh with him. However there is an ugly side of Falstaff, but we overlook it in light of his great humour and the fact that compared to the other characters he generally doesn’t do much damage.
