Comparison Of Two Identities In Shakespeare's Comedy Of Errors

In Comedy of Errors, William Shakespeare contrasts two identities: the ones we see ourselves as, and the ones others see us as, and looks at how these identities change over time. In Comedy of Errors, the action focuses on two sets of twins: the Antipholus twins and the Dromio twins. The Antipholus twins, the children of Egeon, have been split up over the course of their whole lives alongside their respective Dromio twin, who serves them. As these characters end up in the same city for the first time, a series of events (“errors” if you will) occur due to mistaken identity.
One of the first occurrences of a contentious identity is in Act I, Scene ii. In this portion of the scene, Antipholus of Syracuse meets up with Dromio of Ephesus. When

Upon Dromio of Syracuse’s entrance, Antipholus of Syracuse says “How now, sir, is your merry humour altered?/ As you love strokes, so jest with me again./ You know no Centaur? You received no gold?/ Your mistress sent to have me home to dinner?/ My house was at the Phoenix?-Wast thou mad,/ That thus so madly thou didst answer me?/” (II.ii 9-12) Dromio then replies, “What answer, sir? When spake I such a word?/” “Even now, even here, not half an hour since./” “I did not see you since you sent me hence/ Home to the Centaur with the gold you gave me./” (II.ii 13-16) Antipholus of Syracuse, believing that over the course of the day he has only seen one Dromio who has gone to the Centaur Inn with the money, returned spouting off about a wife and not knowing about the Centaur or the gold, and has now returned to him after being beaten. However, this is Dromio of Syracuse, who was sent to the Centaur with the money and now has returned to a master who is unknowingly angry at him. In this moment, Dromio’s identity has changed. Antipholus’s belief that he is dumb and crazy has only increased due to their interaction in this scene and his “jest” (which was actually his brother) in Act I.ii, and by being beaten, Dromio’s self-identity has changed, as his beating by Antipholus reinforces that his identity is as a worthless

However, due to this claiming, Dromio says that he is “a woman’s man,” (specifically Nell’s man), and he is besides himself. Dromio also claims that he is “an ass.” Symbolically, the donkey stands for stupidity and is an easily controlled animal. Since both of these characteristics are ones that Dromio has, he is insinuating that if he becomes Nell’s man and loses his identity as Antipholus’s man, he will be no better than ass, as he will not have his identity and he will just have the characteristics. However, Shakespeare having Dromio say he is “besides myself” (III.ii 78) but not say what he is besides himself with allows one to ponder whether he is not besides himself with. Although his comments later in the scene prove that he is disgusted with Nell and does not wish to marry her, Shakespeare’s clever tactic of not noting of which emotion Dromio is besides himself with allows the reader to question whether Dromio is actually besides himself with joy, as perhaps gaining a new identity “an ass” that cannot think and is controllable would be preferable to an identity as Antipholus’s