Comedy of Errors - Study Guide

Comedy of Errors was one of Shakespeare’s earliest plays. We can't be sure of the date of its composition or of its first performance, but it was played at Gray's Inn (one of the London law schools) on 28 December, 1594. It was not printed until 1623, when it appears among the Comedies in the so-called first Folio. The play is modeled on a Roman comedy, the Menaechmi, by Plautus, which, as it wasn't translated into English until 1595, Shakespeare presumably read in Latin.

1. Plautus sets the action of his play in Epidamnum; Shakespeare sets his farce in Ephesus. Why might Shakespeare have relocated the action? What might Ephesus suggested to a Renaissance audience? What would the major source of this knowledge be?

2. Plautus's play has one set of twins (he writes another play, the Amphitruo, which has identical twin slaves). Shakespeare gives us two sets of twins, each identical even in name. What does this do beyond merely multiplying the opportunities for confusion?

3. In a sense this is a "city comedy". the urban setting and commercial culture are part of its plot. How does this setting affect the play? (Unlike many of the other comedies, here there is no alternative or "green" world for characters to flee to.)

4. Egeon's opening speech is a disturbing tale of loss and danger; how does the genuine threat to his life affect the audience's experience of the play's hilarity (It IS funny). How does his experience provide a context for understanding the notion of comedy at work here?

5. Think about the language of dissolution. Look, for example, at 1.2.35-8. Clearly what amuses the audience unnerves the characters.

6. Think about the play's various women. Compare Luciana and Adriana - and think paticularly about their attitudes towards marriage.

7. What do you make of the Abbess at the end. What values does she give voice to? his is one of only two places in Shakespeare where he withholds from the audience some crucial aspect of the plot. What does that do?

8. Social inequities are given voice throughout the play - a husband, for example,may be "master of his liberty" (2.1.7), a wife must "practise to obey" (2.1. 29), or the Dromios who are somehow born into service. What does the comedy suggest about the social order and what does the social order suggest about comedy)?

9. In what ways is Comedy of Errors like the later comedies? How does it differ? Think especially about what the inhibition is to the happy ending that is finally achieved.