مميزات وعيوب The Comedy of Errors

• 

  Mariam Badawi

  (8 سنة, 11 أشهر ago)

  The Comedy of Errors is written by William Shakespeare. It is a comedy play about mistaken identities. The play is based on a Roman play by Plautus called Menaechmi. Menaechmi is about a pair of twins – Menaechmus of Epidamnus and Menaechmus Sosicles – who got separated at birth. Menaechmus Sosicles is searching for his brother everywhere; he travels to Epidamnus to look for him there where he is mistaken for his brother. Shakespeare, as usual, took confusion to another level; in The Comedy of Errors, we have two pairs of twins: Antipholus of Syracuse and Antipholus of Ephesus, and their slaves who are also twins and share the same name, Dromio of Syracuse and Dromio of Ephesus. A shipwreck – so Shakespearian of him – separated the family; the father, Egeon, one of the Antipholi, and of the Dromios ended up in Syracuse, while the rest of the family ended up in its rival city, Ephesus. Since Ephesus hates Syracuse so much, Syracusians were hanged if spotted in Ephesus; therefore, when Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse traveled to Ephesus, they wore local Ephesus attires to disguise themselves. Now they do not just look exactly like Antipholus and Dromio of Ephesus, but they also dress like them. You could only imagine all the confusion that the whole city was in – including Antipholus E’s wife whose name is Adriana, his mistress, and the merchant he deals with – when they encounter both pairs at different times, for example, when they meet one of them and give him money, then they meet his twin, thinking it’s the same person, who claims he received nothing. What is even worse is that Antipholus of Syracuse fell in love with Luciana – Adriana’s sister – who believes him to be her brother-in-law; therefore, out of his wits to pursue her love and ask her hand in marriage when he is already married to her sister. Things turn from worse to unbelievably horrible until the very end of the play when the Abbess understands what is going on and clears the mess. The play is hilarious and witty with all the puns Shakespeare feeds us with. The two Dromios are hilarious, Dromio of Syracuse, especially, when he is describing the kitchen maid, Nell, who claims to be his wife and he is having a hard time running from her.