Falstaff: Friend or Father Figure? When studying the characters of Shakespeare's Henry IV, one can not help but observe Falstaff. Falstaff is considered by many to be one of the greatest comic inventions ever. Critics have called Falstaff everything ranging from a buffoon to "an instance of the predominance of intellectual power" (Coleridge cited in Hemingway 418). He is by far one of the most dynamic characters ever constructed by Shakespeare. Yet, "the question persists, 'wherein is Falstaff good, but to taste sack and drink it? … Wherein worthy, but in nothing?'" states Charlton (cited in Hemingway 446). Falstaff's main purpo