Domestic Comedy
The Merry Wives of Windsor takes place in a setting that is altogether unremarkable among Shakespeare's other plays. The imagery of scheming housewives and suspicious husbands is a far cry from the kings and queens and courtly machinations that typically serve as the backdrop to Shakespeare's work. Though not quite a city comedy – a genre that follows mostly working-class people and that was made popular by Shakespeare's contemporary, Ben Jonson – this play does stray from the realm of the court and instead portrays what was then a developing English middle class.
Prose
Shakespeare is, of course, famous for writing his plays with extensive use of iambic pentameter, but his domestic comedy breaks with that tradition as well. In fact, nearly all of The Merry Wives of Windsor is written in prose. Shakespeare traditionally turned from verse to prose when he wanted the dialogue to be more conversational and less lofty. Prose is the language of the common man and few Shakespearean plays feature as many common characters as this one.
Falstaff
Audiences would have been familiar with Falstaff from Shakespeare's history plays, but The Merry Wives of Windsor doubles down on the entertaining physical presence of his character – a large, loud, usually drunk knight with an unruly beard. Falstaff himself boasts about his largeness when he says that Mistress Ford admired him for his "portly belly." As such, much of the play's humor derives from the physical comedy of seeing Falstaff in uncomfortable or absurd circumstances – like fitting into a laundry basket or dressing in drag.
Food
Images related to food and eating are also sprinkled liberally throughout the play. A common recurrence is a reminder that dinner is ready to be served or invitation extended to stay for dinner. As this is a domestic comedy where many of the characters would be involved in the creation of dinner whether through hunting or cleaning or cooking, the imagery is associated once again with the middle-class status of those whose stories are being told. But the food imagery is also linked to notions of overindulgence, especially regarding sexual exploits. Since Falstaff is portrayed as grossly overweight, the imagery is especially related to him on a symbolic level as someone who has overindulged in every pleasurable aspect of living.
