Farce and Satire in Shakespeares Comedy of Errors Essays

Farce and Satire in The Comedy of Errors All is not as it seems in The Comedy of Errors. Some have the notion that The Comedy of Errors is a classical and relatively un-Shakespearean play. The plot is, in fact, based largely on Plautuss Menaechmi, a light-hearted comedy in which twins are mistaken for each other. Shakespeares addition of twin servants is borrowed from Amphitruo, another play by Plautus. Like its classical predecessors, The Comedy of Errors mixes farce and satire and (to a degree) presents us with stock characters. Besides being based on classical models, is it really fair to call The Comedy of Errors a serious play? Im not sure it is. Three-quarters of the play is a fast-paced comedy based on†¦show more content†¦What is it, after all, that makes one person different from another? In the case of twins, where everything physical points to identity, how can we tell one person from the other? Some of the characters even begin to doubt their own identity. Dromio of Syracuse says, I am transformed, master, am not I?, and his master wonders, Am I in earth, in heaven, or in hell?/ Sleeping or waking, mad or well-advisd?/ Known unto these, and to myself disguisd? (II.ii.195, 212-14). The play may also be taken as commenting seriously on the limits of human perception and understanding. Both in the last scene and earlier, the strange happenings raise the questions of magic and madness. Antipholus of Syracuse says he thinks Ephesus may be full of sorcerers or witches (I.ii.99; IV.iii.11; III.ii.156), and he wonders more than once if he has gone mad. Dromio of Syracuse thinks he is in fairy land (II.ii.189). The play reveals the limits of human understanding, not only through the mistakes made throughout the play, but also through the fumbling attempts to account for what is happening in the final scene. The Duke wonders if everyone is mated, or stark mad (V.i.282), and Antipholus of Syracuse wonders if he is dreaming (V.i.377). Adriana (wife of the other Antipholus) puts the matter most directly when she says that her husbands presence in twoShow MoreRelatedHello2980 Words   |  12 Pagesof ideas in the order in which things occur; may move from past to present or in reverse, from present to past. Classification (as means of ordering)—Arrangement of objects according to class; e.g., media classified as print, television, radio. Comedy of Manners—A work that deals with the relations and intrigues of gentlemen and ladies living in a polished and sophisticated society; it evokes laughter mainly at the violations of social conventions and decorum and relies on the wit and humor ofRead MoreElizabethan Era11072 Words   |  45 Pages to which tales the Italian name novella (novel) was applied. Most of the separate tales are crude or amateurish and have only historical interest, though as a class they furnished the plots for many Elizabethan dramas, including several of Shakespeares. The most important collection was Painters Palace of Pleasure, in 1566. The earliest original, or partly original, English prose fictions to appear were handbooks of morals and manners in story form, and here the beginning was made by JohnRead Morewisdom,humor and faith19596 Words   |  79 Pagesby comparison with the infirmity of others, or with our own formerly.† Conversely, Solomon thinks that in viewing folly (for example, that of the Three Stooges comedies) we can see our own tendency to unwise behavior and that it can help us become more modest and compassionate—both important steps to becoming wiser. Th e encyclopedia essay also indicates that some thinkers view humor as a form of play and that humor has â€Å"until recently has been treated as roughly co-extensive with laughter,† thoughRead MoreANALIZ TEXT INTERPRETATION AND ANALYSIS28843 Words   |  116 PagesDickens’ novels, they often serve as convenient vehicles for humour and satire. These characters and their deeds are always predictable and never vary. Flat characters are usually minor actors in the novels and stories in which they appear, but not always so. Flat characters have much in common with the kind of stock characters who appear again and again in certain types of literary works: e.g., the rich uncle of domestic comedy, the hard-boiled private eye of the detective story, the female confidante