THE STORY OF ACT II
THE MERRY WIVES AND FORD LAY PLOTS
In Act II a third under-intrigue that of Ford with Falstaffe is added to the two before introduced.
Show how the Merry Wives reveal their separate personalities in their reception of the duplicate letters, and their plot to dupe Falstaffe.
Contrast their two husbands as their natures and marital relations are shown by their different manner of taking the information given them by Nym and Pistol. Ford, considered as Shakespeare's first study of jealousy. How does he compare with Leontes?
How does Ford assist in the plot of the Play?
What pertinence to Ford's jealousy is there in the allusion to Queen
Elizabeth's Sonnet? (II, ii, 199-200).
The Sources of the Merry Wives' intrigue and what Shakespeare has done with them. (See "Sources," First Folio Edition). How is the Duel scene related to the underplot?
What characters belong in common to plot and counterplot?
QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION
Does Falstaffe show any material differences in character as he appears in this Play, in comparison with the way he appears in "Henry IV?"