The King and I

I was surprised by Henry IV not from the plot or the story but mainly by one of the characters. Of all the times I played Falstaff in class, it seemed as though I was nothing more than a drunken, arguing fool. However  from last year's in depth study of probably my favorite play Hamlet, I was taught that the fools and the drunks in Shakespearean plays are always the most wise and truthful. Towards the end of the play, it started to become more prevalent: Falstaff was not only a fatherly figure to Prince Hal but also someone who even after making mistake after mistake was able to admit his faults and carry forward. His confession of hiring his own band of misfits as his army was a coming to light for Falstaff. He not only continued to give the most powerful soliloquy in the play about the meaning of honor but also to be brash and keen. He recognized that even among the midst of those he cared about, he was not going to go out as a fool, killed in the midst of a meaningless battle, but to do what men really strive for: to live. And yes, the entire scene of faking his own death seemed a bit over the line but in the larger view, Falstaff stood for the whole of mankind and even though it seemed the most opposite of honorable, he survived. His lies, like many people tell today, are often only told to keep those safe or to make ourselves look better. If there's one thing I learned from Henry IV, it's that honor comes in multiple forms and that our gut feeling is not always the one that should be overlooked immediately.