Your identity or your life.

摘要

The Merry Wives of Windsor was the only Shakespeare play to deal exclusively with contemporary life in the Elizabethan era. Using the exploits of the central character, Sir John Falstaff, Shakespeare explored the themes of love and marriage, jealousy and revenge, and social class and wealth.Shakespeare also dealt with the concept of identity by creating characters that not only played themselves but also at times took on the roles and names of other characters. Two characters in the play, Mistress Page and Mistress Anne Page, her daughter, had similar names, and despite Falstaff's unique appearance, self-described as being "in the waist two yards about", his name did not come easily to Mistress Page, hence his identity was at risk. "I cannot tell what the dickens his name is...""I can never hit on's name," adds Mistress Page.