Comedy Of Errors

Roland Barthes said “Literature is the question minus the answer.” and in The Comedy Of Errors the play poses the question how strong is the power of love when it comes to fixing broken bonds?. The tragedy and multiple misunderstandings that these characters go through shows the power of love is in fact strong. It’s even strong enough to fix years of damage the shipwreck caused to the lives of these characters. Shakespeare’s treatment of the question how strong is the power of love when it comes to fixing broken bonds shows the power of love is strong and that people can suffer without a loving and stable family.

In the play The Comedy Of Errors Egeon tells a story of his misfortunes in an attempt to save his own life to be able to continue

the one so like the other/ As could not be distinguished but by names./ A mean young women was delivered/… male twins,/ I bought, and brought up to attend my sons./ We were encountered by a mighty rock,/Our helpful ship was splitted in the midst;”(page 91-94). Egeon’s story of his twin sons, twin servants, and his wife Amelia being split up by a shipwreck is only the start of his tragic life. Egeon’s son Antipholus of Syracuse “At eighteen years became inquisitive/ After his brother,..” and he brought along Dromio of Syracuse who was “Reft of his brother, but retained his name--”(page 95). Antipholus of Syracuse and Dromio of Syracuse had not returned. Egeon states “I hazarded the loss of whom I loved./ Five summers have I spent in the farthest Greece,/ Hopeless to find…”(page 95). Egeon not only lost his wife, one of his twin sons, and one of his twin servants in a terrible shipwreck but now his son Antipholus of Syracuse and his son’s servant Dromio of Syracuse have not returned from their quest to find Antipholus’s lost family. Not only did Egeon go through tragedy but so did his wife. When Amelia was on the other half of the ship with her son Antipholus of Ephesus and his servant Dromio of Ephesus “...rude

When Egeon is pleading with the Duke to save his life so he can continue his quest to find his son he says “I hazarded the loss of whom i loved./…. Hopeless to find, yet loath to leave unsought..” showing that Egeon already suffered the loss of a part of his family and now he has no family since Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse are missing. Not only does Egeon suffer from the loss of his family but so does Antipholus of Syracuse which his suffering from losing his family is what motivated his quest. Antipholus arrives in Ephesus and says “I to the world am like a drop of water/ That in the ocean seeks another drop,/ Who, failing there to find his fellow forth,/ Unseen, inquisitive, confounds himself./ So I to find a mother and a brother/ In quest for them unhappy, lose myself.”(page 99). Without a part of his family Antipholus doesnt feel whole and will remain unhappy until he finds that missing part. Egeon and Antipholus are suffering without their loved ones and that will only stop when they are reunited. This theme can also be seen through Adriana and Luciana. Adriana wants her husband to come home for dinner but when he doesn’t she begins to think that Anitpholus of Ephesus is cheating on her. Adriana tells Luciana “SInce that my beauty cannot please his eye,/ I’ll weep what’s left away, and weeping