1. The Comedy of Errors

2. Characters FRAME: The Duke (Silenus), Egeon of Syracuse
Anthipolus of Syracuse, Dromio of Syracuse
Antipholus of Ephesus, Dromio of Ephesus
Adriana, wife of Antipholus of Ephesus
Luciana, Adriana’s sister
Luce (Nell), wife to Dromio of Ephesus
Courtesan (Prostitute)
Dr. Pinch – School teacher/conjurer
The Abbess – nun of Ephesus

3. Background Written between 1592-1594
First documented performance was December 28, 1594 at Gray’s Inn
May have been performed earlier
One of Shakespeare’s earliest plays, and his shortest

4. Locations
Syracuse and Ephesus – Greece, and the sea (which represents Fortune)
Important setting: a combination of the ancient and the modern
Considered: full of spirits, spells and madness (possibly sinful)

5. Influences for Shakespeare’s Play
Plautus c. 254 – 184 B.C.
Roman playwright of the Old Latin period
The Menaechmi or The Twin Brothers (mistaken identity between twins of the same name)
Amphitruo – (Act III: twin servants, master of the house locked out while twin dines)
Frame story of Emilia and Egeon – from Apollonius of Tyre

6. The Comedy of Errors
Considered Shakespeare’s “apprenticeship” in comedy.
Considered adolescent, bawdy and immature
Delights audiences, but seldom draws big time actors, as it does not have “deep” characters.

7. The Classical Unities Comedy of Errors imitates classical comedy.
1- There is one main action, with few subplots.
2- There is a single physical space, not compressed geography or representative of more than one place.
3- The play takes place in no more than 24 hours (same day).

8. Comedy COMEDY (from Greek: komos, "songs of merrimakers")
In the original meaning of the word, comedy referred to a genre of drama during the Dionysian festivals of ancient Athens. The first comedies were loud and boisterous drunken affairs, as the word's etymology suggests.
Later, in medieval and Renaissance use, the word comedy came to mean any play or narrative poem in which the main characters manage to avert an impending disaster and have a happy ending. The comedy did not necessarily have to be funny, and indeed, many comedies are serious in tone.
It is only in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries that comedy's exclusive connotations of humor arose.

9. Format – follows a traditional form
Exposition – basic explanation
Complication – confusion/conflict
Climax – high point of the action
Discovery - clarification
Reversal of Fortune – things do a 180

10. Farce FARCE (from Latin Farsus, "stuffed"):
A farce is a form of low comedy designed to provoke laughter through highly exaggerated caricatures of people in improbable or silly situations.
Traits of farce include
(1) physical bustle such as slapstick,
(2) sexual misunderstandings and mix-ups, and
(3) broad verbal humor such as puns. Many literary critics (especially in the Victorian period) have tended to view farce as inferior to "high comedy" that involves brilliant dialogue.
Many of Shakespeare's early works, such as The Taming of the Shrew, are considered farces.

11. Slapstick
SLAPSTICK COMEDY: Low comedy in which humor depends almost entirely on physical actions and sight gags. The antics of the three stooges often fall into this category.
Who would be examples of modern slapstick comedians?

12. Frame
FRAME NARRATIVE: The result of inserting one or more small stories within the body of a larger story that encompasses the smaller ones.
Often this term is used interchangeably with both the literary technique and the larger story itself that contains the smaller ones, which are called pericopes, "framed narratives" or "embedded narratives." The most famous example is Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.

13. Word Play/Puns
Word play is a literary technique in which the words that are used become the main subject of the work.
Puns (A play on two words similar in sound but different in meaning), phonetic mix-ups such as spoonerisms (The comic (and usually unintentional) transposition of two initial consonants or other sounds), obscure words and meanings, clever rhetorical excursions, oddly formed sentences, and telling character names are common examples of word play.

14. Themes: Relationships
Master/Servant
Husband/Wife
Parent/Child
Native/Alien
Buyer/Seller
Monarch/Parliament (laws)

15. Themes Madness vs. Sanity Illusion vs. Reality Dreaming vs. Waking
What are the real delusions “sane” people suffer?
Contentiousness and jealousy in marriage
Concern for appearances
Being cheated (in business and love)

16. Act I Vocabulary Rancorous (adj.) - hateful
Synods (n.) – assembly, council
Hap (n.) – fortune, lot
Factor (n.) - broker
Meaner (adj.) – lower ranking
Burthen (n.) - burden
Meanly (adv.) – in no small degree

17. Act I , scene i and ii Vocabulary
Importune (v.) – Beg, ask persistently
Reft (adj.) – Robbed, deprived
Hapless (adj.) – Unlucky
Wend (v.) – Direct
Mean (n.) – Way/method
Villain (n.) - Servant
Content (n.) – Pleasure/satisfaction

18. Act I, scene ii Vocabulary
Capon (n.) - Chicken
Dally (v.) – Deal lightly, tease, play about
Pate (n.) - Head
Maw (n.) – Belly/stomach
Knave (n.) – Scoundrel, rascal, rogue, servant, lackey
Sconce (n.) - Head
Flout (v.)– Insult, jibe, taunt
An - if