Henry IV Falstaff is a character who lusts for everything, but especially for more life. He represents one of the two great competing philosophies of the ancient and medieval worlds -- Epicureanism. K

Henry IV

Falstaff is a character who lusts for everything, but especially for more life. He represents one of the two great competing philosophies of the ancient and medieval worlds -- Epicureanism. King Henry (and to a certain extent Hotspur as well) represent the other philosophy -- Stoicism. It might help to browse through these two wikis about the two philosophies (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoicism and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epicureanism) For the question, consider passages where Falstaff, the King, and Hotspur speak about their viewpoints, reflect on how Shakespeare seems to present both philosophies but yet never seems to fully endorse either. (hint: look especially at the passages about honour).

300 words