What is 'Every Man in His Humour' about?

Answer 1

The play 'Every Man in His Humour' is overtly about a father's concern over his son's morals. But the father, Kno-well, doesn't express that concern in direct conversation. Instead, he resorts to indirect, questionable means by having a servant spy upon his son's activities.

This lack of trust between the father and his son, and between the father and his servant, is the problem that plagues the relationships between the other characters in the play. For example, a merchant likewise is concerned over his wife's morals. He decides that she is going from affair to affair with her brother's rowdy companions. He likewise decides to go about indirect, questionable means of finding the proof and ending the undesirable behavior.

So the play is an enactment of the sayings 'What goes around comes around', 'To each their own', and 'Judge not lest ye be judged'. The characters have the worst suspicions of one another. They don't attempt to resolve these suspicions directly. Instead, those who judge are every bit as obsessed in their nefarious proof gathering as those they judge are in their particular obsessions. And so behind 'Every Man in His Humour' is the particular obsession, misunderstanding, or deception that make up the folly of being human.