Comedy Of Errors Play Analysis

There are many uses of metaphor, metre, imagery in The Comedy of Errors this passage is no exception. During this extract Dromio and Antipholus of Syracuse take on an arrhythmic metre typical of contests of wit. Their wit is demonstrated in the multiple homonyms used of the word sconce. Furthermore this repetition is used not only to demonstrate wit but to mirror the slapstick humour of Dromio being struck over and over again. This contributes to the dramatic effect of the scene, while simultaneously being ironic that both characters have mistaken each others identity at one time or another to create the confusion about the money and their past conversations as they literally take part in a battle of wit the very opposite of their confusion.

The title of the play suggests a double redundancy through this “comedy” of “errors” there is more to it then what’s on the surface similarly to Much ado about nothing. In closer inspection the genre of comedy, historical or tragedy becomes fluid. With the threatened execution and loss of Egeon’s wife and two children although perhaps not seriously a possibility with the introduction of the money so early into the play and his fall into the background. The very genre that is in its tittle and appears redundant is seen to be not be so matter of fact. Comedy's are inevitably inseparable from error as can be seen in all Shakespeare's comedies so it to appears redundant. The same can be seen from the various perspectives of characters in the play on what is the error/s is in the text. These apparent redundancies in the text as a whole reveal the unstable nature of language. The scene contributes to this multifaceted nature of often fluid binaries in this play such as husband, wife, and the aforementioned, that might appear simple at first glance but are complicated by passages such as this one and the very meaning of words given