The Merry Wives Of Windsor Essay

The Merry Wives of Windsor: Domestic Setting as Enabling and Restricting for Female Gender Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor, written sometime between 1597 and 1598, takes place in predominately domestic settings, namely Page’s house, the Garter Inn, and Ford’s house. These domestic settings allow for an intimate look into the lives and gender relations of the English middle-class characters. This paper will pay particular attention to Act 4 Scene 2, which takes place in Ford’s household, to explore the ways in which the wives, prominently Mistress Ford, outwits her husband in a domestic setting. I argue that the domestic setting of 4.2 allows for Mistress Ford to outwit her husband, however this notion becomes complicated, as Ford reasserts his dominance over the home through language immersed in masculine control; domestic language exemplifies how the setting of Ford’s house allows for Mistress Ford to outwit Ford, while simultaneously enforcing her subordinated position in the home in 16th and 17th century Early Modern England. It is first crucial to note what the role of a wife was in Early Modern England, and how this role confines a woman within the realm of the
They use a laundry basket and clothing, elements of a domestic setting, to outsmart Ford. Mistress Ford notes that she cannot hide Falstaff in the “press, coffer, chest or trunk”(4.2.2020-21) because “there is no hiding [Falstaff] in the house” (4.2.2023). However she can use elements of the household to trick Ford, laundry and maid’s garb, things her husband is perhaps unfamiliar with and unsuspecting of. She is resourceful within the space she is confined to; this gives her power within the household, as well as confines her to the gender normativity of the