The Heroic Circle In The Merry Wives Of Windsor

The hero circle is not just for the heroes, but can also illustrate the antagonist’s journey throughout the story. In the Merry Wives of Windsor, Falstaff is a great example of a bad guy taking the hero circle. He starts out at his ordinary world as a thief and finds redemption at his return of Elixir. His character fills many archetypes throughout the hero circle. He demonstrates all the qualities of the fool archetype. He tried to fool the wives, but the wives ended up fooling Falstaff. Falstaff carries on the theme of lies that soon will get him into trouble at the end. Falstaff describes many archetypes, uses the hero circle, and illustrates that lying and money are evil. In his ordinary world, Falstaff is a knight who is portraying the lover archetype. His goal is to earn money in the easiest way, possibly because he is not getting a job. Falstaff states, “Well, sirs, I am almost out at heels. There is no remedy. I must cony-catch, I must shift” (Shakespeare,27). Falstaff states that he is going to con someone out of money because there is no other way to earn money and he broke. He refuses to get a job, so he enters the call to adventure and thinks about a new scam. Then Falstaff finds his new victims, Mistress Ford and Mistress Page, married wives with rich husbands. He portrays the destroyer archetype because he will destroy a

Falstaff started the conquest because he wanted to steal money from Mistress Page and Mistress Ford husbands. Falstaff had to tell many tall tales to keep his quest going and caused many consequences throughout the play. Falstaff was thrown into a river and beaten up when he dresses like a woman. He tried to fool others but he learned that he was the fool at the end. Mistress Page and Mistress Ford planned everything so that Falstaff will learn a lesson. In fact, he learned the moral story that when you look for trouble the consequences are