"The universe is made of stories, not of atoms"


1. «The Comedy of Errors»


Read the comedy here!

**********************KEY FACTS****************************

Type of Work: The play is a comedy that veers toward farce and burlesque. It is sometimes classified as a «comedy of intrigue» or a «comedy of situation.» With approximately 16,250 words, The Comedy of Errors is Shakespeare’s shortest play.

Date Written: Early 1590’s.

First Performance: Probably December 28, 1594, at Gray’s Inn in London, one of four «Inns of Court,» establishments for educating members of the legal profession.

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Women are very present in The Comedy of Errors as vocal forces. Though they have a lot of opinions and many speaking lines, it seems their main reason for existing in the play is to talk about and react to men. For that reason, I am going to focus my study on Adriana, wife of Antipholus of Ephesus, and Luciana, Adriana’s unmarried sister. Through several dialogs we will see the different perspectives on marriage offered in The Comedy of Errors by these two female characters.

"The Comedy of Errors". From The Complet Works of William Shakespeare

The central marriage in the play is that of Adriana and Antipholus of Ephesus,and it does not seem to be a happy one. In this play, we can clearly observe that the identity of Adriana is fringed upon that of her husband, in fact, at that time the woman was seen as an extension of the man. Women were objects of male desire and dependent on that desire for their status, livelihood and even their lives. They accepted their husband as teacher and master.

In act II scene I Adriana seems to be a different woman from the others. Adriana, in a debate with Luciana, asserts her independence and power within her marriage and she believes that women should have as much freedom as men:

ADRIANA

Neither my husband nor the slave return’d,
That in such haste I sent to seek his master!
Sure, Luciana, it is two o’clock.

LUCIANA

Perhaps some merchant hath invited him,
And from the mart he’s somewhere gone to dinner.
Good sister, let us dine and never fret:
A man is master of his liberty:
Time is their master, and, when they see time,
They’ll go or come: if so, be patient, sister.

ADRIANA

Why should their liberty than ours be more?

LUCIANA

Because their business still lies out o’ door.

ADRIANA

Look, when I serve him so, he takes it ill.

LUCIANA

O, know he is the bridle of your will.

ADRIANA

There’s none but asses will be bridled so.

LUCIANA

Why, headstrong liberty is lash’d with woe.
There’s nothing situate under heaven’s eye
But hath his bound, in earth, in sea, in sky:
The beasts, the fishes, and the winged fowls,
Are their males’ subjects and at their controls:
Men, more divine, the masters of all these,
Lords of the wide world and wild watery seas,
Indued with intellectual sense and souls,
Of more preeminence than fish and fowls,
Are masters to their females, and their lords:
Then let your will attend on their accords.

ADRIANA

This servitude makes you to keep unwed.

LUCIANA

Not this, but troubles of the marriage-bed.

ADRIANA

But, were you wedded, you would bear some sway.

LUCIANA

Ere I learn love, I’ll practise to obey.

ADRIANA

How if your husband start some other where?

LUCIANA

Till he come home again, I would forbear.

ADRIANA

Patience unmoved! no marvel though she pause;
They can be meek that have no other cause.
A wretched soul, bruised with adversity,
We bid be quiet when we hear it cry;
But were we burdened with like weight of pain,
As much or more would we ourselves complain:
So thou, that hast no unkind mate to grieve thee,
With urging helpless patience wouldst relieve me,
But, if thou live to see like right bereft,
This fool-begg’d patience in thee will be left.

LUCIANA

Well, I will marry one day, but to try.
Here comes your man; now is your husband nigh.

(Act II  scene I)

As Luciana , other characters,  locate the blame of the unhappy marriage in the jealousy of Adriana, who is, indeed, portrayed as the kind of shrewish woman often found in the English plays of the period, including Shakespeare’s own The Taming of the Shrew. Still, the playwright’s sympathies seem to lie more with Adriana than with her simpering sister, who mouth conventional marital wisdom of the era. Actually, Luciana says that Adriana has been too jealous that has driven her husband insane with her bullying and prodding, when it is a woman’s place to be docile; however, her husband’s odd behavior has nothing to do with her and is the result of highly improbable circumstances. taking that into acount, I think that, far from supporting Luciana and the Abbess in their condemnations, Shakespeare is satirizing perspectives on marriage that would soon be out-of-date even in his era.

Back to the dialogue shown above, when Dromio of Ephesus enters in the scene, Adriana changes her attitude. She has so utterly sunk her identity into her role as wife that she believes that she and her husband are one indivisible whole:

ADRIANA

But say, I prithee, is he coming home? It seems he
hath great care to please his wife.

DROMIO OF EPHESUS

Why, mistress, sure my master is horn-mad.

ADRIANA

Horn-mad, thou villain!

DROMIO OF EPHESUS

I mean not cuckold-mad;
But, sure, he is stark mad.
When I desired him to come home to dinner,
He ask’d me for a thousand marks in gold:
»Tis dinner-time,’ quoth I; ‘My gold!’ quoth he;
‘Your meat doth burn,’ quoth I; ‘My gold!’ quoth he:
‘Will you come home?’ quoth I; ‘My gold!’ quoth he.
‘Where is the thousand marks I gave thee, villain?’
‘The pig,’ quoth I, ‘is burn’d;’ ‘My gold!’ quoth he:
‘My mistress, sir’ quoth I; ‘Hang up thy mistress!
I know not thy mistress; out on thy mistress!’

LUCIANA

Quoth who?

DROMIO OF EPHESUS

Quoth my master:
‘I know,’ quoth he, ‘no house, no wife, no mistress.’
So that my errand, due unto my tongue,
I thank him, I bare home upon my shoulders;
For, in conclusion, he did beat me there.

ADRIANA

Go back again, thou slave, and fetch him home.

DROMIO OF EPHESUS

Go back again, and be new beaten home?
For God’s sake, send some other messenger.

ADRIANA

Back, slave, or I will break thy pate across.

DROMIO OF EPHESUS

And he will bless that cross with other beating:
Between you I shall have a holy head.

ADRIANA

Hence, prating peasant! fetch thy master home.

DROMIO OF EPHESUS

Am I so round with you as you with me,
That like a football you do spurn me thus?
You spurn me hence, and he will spurn me hither:
If I last in this service, you must case me in leather.

Exit

LUCIANA

Fie, how impatience loureth in your face!

ADRIANA

His company must do his minions grace,
Whilst I at home starve for a merry look.
Hath homely age the alluring beauty took
From my poor cheek? then he hath wasted it:
Are my discourses dull? barren my wit?
If voluble and sharp discourse be marr’d,
Unkindness blunts it more than marble hard:
Do their gay vestments his affections bait?
That’s not my fault: he’s master of my state:
What ruins are in me that can be found,
By him not ruin’d? then is he the ground
Of my defeatures. My decayed fair
A sunny look of his would soon repair
But, too unruly deer, he breaks the pale
And feeds from home; poor I am but his stale.

(Act II  scene I)

Luciana’s sense of identity within marriage, in her way, contrast with Adriana’s. She believes that men are naturally lords over their wives, and wants to learn to obey before she learns to love ( «Ere I learn love, I’ll practise to obey». Act I scene II). At the end, she pairs up with Antipholus of Syracuse. He offers to take a submissive role in the relationship, he wants her to teach him how to think and speak.

As we have seen, Shakespeare presents in this comedy 2 different views of marriage and women role but, though Adriana could be seen as a jealous, shrewish wife in the first dialog show above , she seems obliged to behave properly on her role of wife and wealthy woman in order to fit in the society, accepting in front of them the ideas represented in the comedy by her sister Luciana, being obedient and submissive to her husband.

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Related posts:

Men and women roles in Elizabethan society.

Much Ado About Nothing

As You Like It

Twelfth Night

Conclusion


Bibliography_ 1st paper_ Shakespeare

_Jhonston, Ian. Critical Approaches to Shakespeare: Some Initial Observations [on-line]. May 1999, November 2001 [ref. November 2010]. Available in World Wide Web:

http://records.viu.ca/~johnstoi/eng366/approaches.htm >

_Mabillard, Amanda. Shakespeare’s Audience: The Groundlings [on-line]. Shakespeare Online. 20 Aug. 2000. [ref. November 2010]. Available in World Wide Web:

< http://www.shakespeare-online.com/essays/shakespeareaudience.html >

_Mabillard, Amanda. Entertainment in Elizabethan England [on-line]. Shakespeare Online. 20 Aug. 2000. [ref. November 2010]. Available in World Wide Web:

< http://www.shakespeare-online.com/faq/entertainment.html>

_McMillan, Eric. The Greatest Authors of all Time: William Shakespeare [on-line]. 2002-2003 [ref. October 2010]. Available in World Wide Web:

http://www.editoreric.com/greatlit/authors/Shakespeare.html >

_Encyclopaedia Britannica. Guide to Shakespeare [on-line]. [ref. October 2010]. Available in World Wide Web:

http://www.britannica.com/shakespeare >

_Wikipedia. William Shakespeare [on-line]. [ref. October 2010]. Available in World Wide Web:

< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare >

_Wikipedia. Elizabethan Era [on-line]. [ref. October 2010]. Available in World Wide Web:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabethan_era >

_Wikipedia. The Taming of the Shrew [on-line]. [ref. October 2010]. Available in World Wide Web:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Taming_of_the_Shrew >

_Gray, Terry A. The Taming of the Shrew. 25 April 1998. [ref. October 2010]. Available in World Wide Web:

<http://shakespeare.palomar.edu/lambtales/LTSHREW.HTM>

_Gardner, Patrick and Phillips, Brian. SparkNote on The Taming of the Shrew. 22 March 2007. [ref. October 2010]. Available in World Wide Web:

<http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/shrew/characters.html>

Katherine: an attempt of breaking social rules

Before reading the paper, please read The Taming of the Shrew or, at least, a summary of the plot.

Katherine: an attempt of breaking social rules

In The Taming of the Shrew, Shakespeare creates a troubling comedy that explores Elizabethan issues of gender or gender roles: that is, the socially accepted definitions of appropriate male and female behavior.

On the surface, the play appears to confirm a very traditional Elizabethan view that men should dominate women and that women should submit to male authority. All of the characters except Katherina agree throughout the play that her initial rebellious, self-assertive, «shrewish» behavior is not acceptable. Analyzing the different characters throughout the play, we can find a reflection of how Elizabethan society was:

  • Baptista: We can see in this character how men thought of their wives and daughter as their property, expecting from them to be docile and obedient. He is one of the wealthiest men in Padua, and his daughters, Bianca and Katherina, become the prey of many suitors due to the substantial dowries he can offer. His absentmindedness increases when Kate shows her obstinate nature. Thus, at the opening of the play, he is already desperate to find her a suitor, having decided that she must marry before Bianca does.
  • Bianca: The younger daughter of Baptista. The “lovely” Bianca can be considered the opposite of her sister, Kate, at the beginning of the play. This character is the stereotype of the perfect women during Shakespeare’s time: she is soft-spoken, sweet, and unassuming. Because of her large dowry and her mild behavior, several men vie for her hand. It is important to remember at this point that Marriage was seen as the desirable state for both men and women, and single women were sometimes looked upon with suspicion.
  • Petruchio: Petruchio represents the man who conceives marriage as a business, although he will take care of his wife. Petruchio is a gentleman from Verona. Loud, boisterous, eccentric, quick-witted, and frequently drunk, he has come to Padua “to wive and thrive.” He wishes for nothing more than a woman with an enormous dowry, and he finds Kate to be the perfect fit.

Signor Hortensio, ‘twixt such friends as we

Few words suffice; and therefore, if thou know

One rich enough to be Petruchio’s wife—

As wealth is burden of my wooing dance—

Be she as foul as was Florentius’ love,

As old as Sibyl, and as curst and shrewd

As Socrates’ Xanthippe or a worse,

She moves me not—or not removes at least

Affection’s edge in me, were she as rough

As are the swelling Adriatic seas.

I come to wive it wealthily in Padua;

If wealthily, then happily in Padua.

(I.ii.62–73)

Disregarding everyone who warns him of her shrewishness, apart from his prospective wife’s wealth, Petruchio says that he does not care about any of her other qualities. This speech exemplifies Petruchio’s brash, robust manner of speaking. He is blatantly honest about his materialism and selfishness, and he also straightforwardly acknowledges the economic aspect of marriage—something that everyone in the play is keenly aware of but which only Petruchio discusses so frankly and openly and with so little concern for romantic love. In spite of this, we can see a strong sexual attraction between Katherina and Petruchio as well as a growing comradeship. Moreover, although Petruchio seeks to control Katherina, at the end he appears to admire and value her spirit.

  • Lucentio: Just as Bianca is Katherine’s opposite, the intrepid, lovesick Lucentio serves as a foil for Petruchio throughout the play. Lucentio reflects the sort of idyllic, poetical view of love that Petruchio’s pragmatism dismisses: Lucentio is struck by love for Bianca at first sight, says that he will die if he cannot win her heart, and subsequently puts into motion a romantic and fanciful plan to do so. Whereas love in the play is often mitigated by economic and social concerns, Lucentio is swept up in a vision of courtly love that does not include the practical considerations of men like Petruchio. Throughout much of the play, then, Lucentio and Bianca’s relationship appears to be refreshing and pure in comparison to the relationship between Petruchio and Katherine. Petruchio’s decision to marry is based on his self-proclaimed desire to win a fortune, while Lucentio’s is based on romantic love.
  • Katherine: she is a character that does not fit in the stereotype of the Elizabethan woman. Katherine is the “shrew” of the play’s title, the daughter of Baptista Minola, with whom she lives in Padua. Widely reputed throughout Padua to be a shrew, Kate is foul-tempered and sharp-tongued at the start of the play. She constantly insults and degrades the men around her, particularly anyone who tries to marry her. Her hostility toward suitors particularly distresses her father. Though most of the play’s characters simply believe Katherine to be inherently ill-tempered, it is certainly plausible to think that her unpleasant behavior stems from unhappiness because she feels out of place in her society. Throughout the play Shakespeare made  a big change in the way Katherine seems to conceive marriage and the role of men and women, she does not resist her suitor Petruchio forever, though, and she eventually subjugates herself to him, despite her previous repudiation of marriage.

Due to Katherine’s intelligence and independence, she is unwilling to play the role of the maiden daughter, the “perfect woman”. She clearly abhors society’s expectations that she obey her father and show grace and courtesy toward her suitors. At the same time, however, Katherine must see that given the rigidity of her social situation, her only hope to find a secure and happy place in the world lies in finding a husband. These inherently conflicting impulses may lead to her misery and poor temper. A vicious circle ensues: the angrier she becomes, the less likely it seems she will be able to adapt to her prescribed social role; the more alienated she becomes socially, the more her anger grows.

Thanks to this character, Shakespeare was able to present in front of the audience the problems of a society where gender roles were so rigid, Where women with desires of independence, who are capable of taking care of themselves and who are sure about being equal to men, were treated as a wild animal which needs to be tamed. The play is, in fact, a comedy about an assertive woman coping with how she is expected to act in the society of the late sixteenth century and of how one must obey the unwritten rules of a society to be accepted in it.

We can understand the taming of Katherine and the play’s attitude toward gender roles in different ways:

  • Although the play ends with her outwardly conforming to the norms of society, this is in action only, not in mind. Although she assumes the role of the obedient wife, inwardly she still retains her assertiveness. I this sense, Katherina’s final speech should be read ironically, with the implication that she will pretend to defer to Petruchio in public while ruling the household in private.

Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper,

Thy head, thy sovereign . . .

Such duty as the subject owes the prince,

Even such a woman oweth to her husband,

And when she is froward, peevish, sullen, sour,

And not obedient to his honest will,

What is she but a foul contending rebel

And graceless traitor to her loving lord?

I am ashamed that women are so simple [foolish]

To offer war where they should kneel for peace,

Or seek for rule, supremacy, and sway,

When they are bound to serve, love, and obey.

(5.2.148-66 / Katherine’s final speech)

This adaptation to to her social role as a wife must be attractive to Katherine on some level, since even if she dislikes the role of wife, playing it at least means she can command respect and consideration from others rather than suffer the universal revulsion she receives as a shrew.

  • The play ultimately accepts and reinforces male dominance of women as it shows how a woman can only be happy acting as she is expected to do and being obedient to his father and husband, reason why Katherine changes his mind about marriage, etc.
  • While accepting male dominance the play emphasizes the need for mutual affection, cooperation, and partnership in marriage.
  • The play ultimately undermines male dominance of women by showing this dominance to be artificial and illogical.

In my opinion, and taking into account the way in which Shakespeare presented the play before the audience, I think that Shakespeare’s intention was the first one of the options presented above, and I do so because of the different devices used by Shakespeare in order to distance the audience from what happens in the play.One must also take into account the attitudes of sixteenth century England and the fact that the play is a comedy and is not meant to be taken seriously.

The play-within-a-play structure emphasizes to the audience that what they are about to see is a performance, not reality, but someone’s interpretation of reality in a satirized way, exaggerating the features of characters such as Katherine or Petruchio. In this way, the audience didn’t feel scandalized in front of a woman who rejects, at least at the beginning, her social role and the superiority of men.

In addition to that, Shakespeare chose a setting for the play far away from where the audience was from, Italy. Doing so he achieved to stress that what they were watching was not reality but a performance, so they did not have such problems about social and gender roles.

Confusion between appearance and reality is a principal source of humor in The Taming of the Shrew, giving place to grotesque situations. In the Induction, Sly is misled by carefully orchestrated appearances into believing that he is really a wealthy nobleman rather than a poor tinker. The subplot likewise depends on the confusion of appearance and reality as various characters practice elaborate deceptions. Hortensio pretends to be the music teacher Litio. Lucentio poses as the schoolmaster Cambio. He and Bianca use Latin lessons as a cover for their courtship, and they deceive her father by eloping on the eve of her planned betrothal to another man. Lucentio’s servant, Tranio, pretends to be his master and persuades an elderly scholar to pose as his master’s father. Following with the device of false realities that Shakespeare set in place so early in the play, it would seem more logical that Katherine would simply be acting the part of ‘the obedient wife’ in order to be accepted in the society in which she lives.  Katherine can ‘play a part’ very well and can even enjoy doing it. In fact, It is difficult to believe that a character as vibrant and strong-willed as Katherine is changed/”tamed” so easily.

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