town represents society not so much as it actually is, but as it should be. Shakespeare, more than likely, nostalgically and imaginatively may have had the Stratford of his boyhood in mind when he created the town of Windsor.
Despite the charm of the comedy and the great humor in it, a number of critics have taken a dislike to it; and the main reason for their dislike is the character of Falstaff. Such critics contend that the Falstaff of Windsor is only a pale reflection of the Falstaff who appears in the history plays. They feel that Shakespeare somehow had let them down. These critics, though, may be overreacting. A number of critics have fallen into the camp of deifying Shakespeare’s comic character: they see aspects of his character that do not exist and that Shakespeare never intended. Indeed, there are some discrepancies between the Windsor Falstaff and the one who appears in the history plays. But Shakespeare, in all likelihood, knew what he was doing. The Falstaff of the comedy appears to be an older one than the one who appears in the history plays. Falstaff has fallen upon lean and rough times, and that has made him desperate. His desperation thus causes him to act and behave differently than he would have at an earlier time of life.
More importantly, the Falstaff character works extremely well for the context of the comedy. His essential character – the character that first appears in 1 Henry IV – is the ideal choice for the plot of the comedy. No other comic character in literature would have worked half so well.