Anne Page is almost fourteen and the single object of desire in The Merry Wives of Windsor, though she desires none of her suitors until Fenton wins her heart. She is caught between her parents’ competing schemes: her father favors the wealthy but witless Abraham Slender, while her mother supports Doctor Caius, the wealthy French physician with court connections. Both marriages would secure money and status for the family. Anne, however, has already secretly bound herself to Fenton, a young gentleman her parents dismiss as a fortune-hunter with no substantial means. What the play reveals is that Anne’s judgment is sound and Fenton’s heart true. He admits he courted her initially for her father’s wealth, but “wooing thee, I found thee of more value / Than stamps in gold or sums in sealed bags.” Anne’s choice of Fenton is an act of quiet rebellion against both parental control and the mercenary logic that governs marriage in her world.
Her character is defined not by what she does—she has remarkably few lines—but by what she refuses to do. When Slender stumbles toward her with no grace or effort, when Caius boasts of his wealth, Anne remains unmoved. She sees through the performance of suitors and parents alike. Her father assumes she will obey; her mother schemes to marry her to the doctor while pretending to support her father’s choice. Anne navigates this maze of manipulation by deploying her own disguises and deceptions. She agrees to be the Fairy Queen in the mock masque at Herne’s oak, and in that role—while Slender and Caius expect to marry her in white and green respectively—she escapes to the church with Fenton and a willing priest. The final masque is arranged by the wives as a public humiliation of Falstaff, but it becomes Anne’s opportunity for freedom.
The play’s ending affirms that love freely chosen trumps wealth and parental will. When Anne reveals she has married Fenton, her father initially objects, but Ford’s closing wisdom settles the matter: “In love the heavens themselves do guide the state; Money buys lands, and wives are sold by fate.” Anne proves otherwise. She is not sold but chooses, and in that choice she claims her own agency. Her marriage to Fenton—accomplished through wit, disguise, and courage—is the one union in the play based on genuine affection rather than money, status, or schemes. She enters the play as a prize to be won; she exits as a woman who has won herself.
