Family and Marriage in Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors and the Renaissance. Yet the tangled web of separated families that Shakespeare weaves presents significant differences from each of his originals, pointing to ideas about family and marriage that Shakespeare undoubtedly had, and which were to be further developed in later works . Plautus's Menaechmi provides a basic framework for Shakespeare's work. plot: two long-separated brothers mistaken for each other. However, Plautus' two brothers differ significantly in their attitude: one is "cheerful, generous and fun-loving", the other "clever, calculating and cynical" (Kinko, p. 10). Shakespeare's Antipholi seem as confused as their Menaechmi relations, but more interchangeable in their general temperament. Plautus' Amphitryon proposes the idea of doubling the servants as well as the masters, but these are duplicates by divine action: some are gods in disguise fully aware of the situation, others are confused mortals. So why resort to mortal twins behaving the same way? Perhaps it is in the family members that Shakespeare adds -- Egeon, Aemilia, Luciana -- that we discover the motives for his adaptations. One of the main themes of Shakespearean comedy is that of the new community: thus the stereotypical round of marriages which is a given for almost all comic acts V. Here we have only one new marriage, between ( Syracusan) Antipholus Erotes and Luciana, the restoration of happiness to (Ephesian) Antipholus Sereptus and the once malignant Adriana, and the renewal of Egeon and Aemilia's long-standing relationship. broken marriage bonds (drawn and expanded from Gower's Confessio Amantis). But the characters begin the play almost entirely separated from the community: Egeon has long since lost his wife and half his offspring, and abandoned his famous son for a seven-year search; Antipholus Erotes seems blithely unaware of his father's presence in town, so complete is their separation; even Antipholus Sereptus is separated from his wife Adriana, not enjoying the state of fruitful marriage which must be the lot of comic characters. They are all awash in a capitalist society of business and obligation, with little room for generosity but plenty for the officer, debtor's prison, and harsh laws against Syracuse foreigners that even the Duke cannot overturn. Here, Saint Paul enters the fray, with the prescriptions of his Epistle to the Ephesians (!): “Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands, as to the Lord.

Essay / Family and Marriage in Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors and the Renaissance. Yet the tangled web of separated families that Shakespeare weaves presents significant differences from each of his originals, pointing to ideas about family and marriage that Shakespeare undoubtedly had, and which were to be further developed in later works . Plautus's Menaechmi provides a basic framework for Shakespeare's work. plot: two long-separated brothers mistaken for each other. However, Plautus' two brothers differ significantly in their attitude: one is "cheerful, generous and fun-loving", the other "clever, calculating and cynical" (Kinko, p. 10). Shakespeare's Antipholi seem as confused as their Menaechmi relations, but more interchangeable in their general temperament. Plautus' Amphitryon proposes the idea of doubling the servants as well as the masters, but these are duplicates by divine action: some are gods in disguise fully aware of the situation, others are confused mortals. So why resort to mortal twins behaving the same way? Perhaps it is in the family members that Shakespeare adds -- Egeon, Aemilia, Luciana -- that we discover the motives for his adaptations. One of the main themes of Shakespearean comedy is that of the new community: thus the stereotypical round of marriages which is a given for almost all comic acts V. Here we have only one new marriage, between ( Syracusan) Antipholus Erotes and Luciana, the restoration of happiness to (Ephesian) Antipholus Sereptus and the once malignant Adriana, and the renewal of Egeon and Aemilia's long-standing relationship. broken marriage bonds (drawn and expanded from Gower's Confessio Amantis). But the characters begin the play almost entirely separated from the community: Egeon has long since lost his wife and half his offspring, and abandoned his famous son for a seven-year search; Antipholus Erotes seems blithely unaware of his father's presence in town, so complete is their separation; even Antipholus Sereptus is separated from his wife Adriana, not enjoying the state of fruitful marriage which must be the lot of comic characters. They are all awash in a capitalist society of business and obligation, with little room for generosity but plenty for the officer, debtor's prison, and harsh laws against Syracuse foreigners that even the Duke cannot overturn. Here, Saint Paul enters the fray, with the prescriptions of his Epistle to the Ephesians (!): “Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands, as to the Lord.

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