Over the month of March, I explored my first Shakespeare comedy. "The Comedy of Errors" is an amusing, quaint play involving a series of mishaps. In the opening of the play, we are introduced to Egeon as he faces execution. The duke caught him meandering around the parts of Ephesus, his rival city. Prior to his executing, the duke lets Egeon tell his story. He had two beautiful sons and brought up two servants for them. Each twin, servant and nobleman, lost his other half. Of course, the irony of Shakespeare's play is when these twins run into each other. Antipholus of Syracuse has been on a long quest in search of his brother. He brought along his spacey servant Dromio. When they stumble into Ephesus, the gentleman and his helper are summoned for dinner. Although they find it quite peculiar, they go. Little do they know that they are in the castle of their twins. From there, the madness grows exponentially. Eventually, one set of twins nearly gets the other one arrested. Shakespeare's wisecracking show comes to a climactic explosion of action in the final act. Since this play has a beautiful ending, I do not wish to ruin the conclusion for any readers of mine.
The two noble twins are both named Antipholus. While Antipholus of Syracuse has spent his entire life searching for his brother, Antipholus of Ephesus has accumulated a large amount of wealth and power in his town. Their contrast is a key ironic element in the continual sequence of mishaps. Contrary to how Antipholus of Ephesus feels outraged as his town betrays him, his Syrucusian counterpart has no problem enjoying the luxuries he never dreamed he would have. I believe that many wonder if the richest people in our society could live the everyday, working class lifestyles we endure. Shakespeare captures this divide between rich and poor beautifully from beginning to end.
Reading about Dromio of Syracuse and Dromio of Ephesus makes me wish I had a twin, so I could play one of these hilarious servants. "Errors" would be nothing without the two hilarious servants who serve Antipholus. Like his master, Dromio of Syracuse enjoys the rich life. Dromio has this delightful scene with his master when he describes a woman he has met at his twin's abode. Despite the fact that he has fallen for this lady, the only way he can describe her to his master is how wide she is. He begins to map out her body as if it was her globe. In our modern society, such an act may seem grotesk, yet Shakespeare just makes it tickle the human emotion. Truth is, some guys still objectify women to such rude atributes. Dromio of Ephesus runs into Antipholus of Syracuse and gets this whole mixup started. Both Dromio's seem to capture the essence of what it is to be an everyday guy, they make mistakes and pay for them.
Compared to "Macbeth" and "Romeo and Juliet", I would classify "Errors" as a fairly easy read. Once a reader gets used to the fact that there are pairs of men with the same name getting mixed up in almost every scene, the book is easy to follow. Since the beginning can be somewhat confusing, I would not endorse that "The Comedy of Errors" be anyone's first Shakespeare. It confounds me that such a funny story could be one of the lesser known Shakespeare plays. Even though "comedy" is in the title, Shakespeare does not tell loud jokes. Shakespeare embraces the irony of the situation. I recommend that readers do not go fishing for laughs when reading the show. Let the jokes come to you. If for any other reason, read this play for its last line. I found it quite profound for such a goofy piece of literature. I believe you should this story as Dromio of Syracuse says to his master, '" Run, master, run; for God’s sake, take a house! This is some priority"' (V.i.36-37).
No comments:
Post a Comment