Introduction
Titus Maccius Plautus and William Shakespeare are two of the most renowned playwrights from ancient Rome and the Renaissance, respectively. This paper aims to compare and contrast Plautus’ Menaechmi Brothers and Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors. Menaechmi is considered one of Plautus’ most outstanding comedies and is believed to have inspired Shakespeare to write an identical play, The Comedy of Errors.
The plays are successful in their own right, but they share many similar elements, such as mistaken identity, comedy, and themes of family. TheComedy of Errors is more complex and involves additional components, such as dual twin characters and spiritual elements. Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors boasts a more intricate plot, thanks to its ability to seamlessly interweave multiple storylines and emotions while maintaining a sense of humor.
Comparative Analysis of Plautus’ Menaechmi and Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors
Background of Playwrights
Plautus originated from Rome but studied Greek drama, which formed the basis for most of his comedic works for the Roman stage. He used a simplified form of Greek, combined with Latin, to achieve many dramatic results that have endured throughout history in their original form. Shakespeare is an English playwright, poet, actor, and writer who was mainly active during the Early Modern Period. Shakespeare’s works demonstrate his fondness for employing a light-hearted tone and incorporating wordplay and clever puns that remain effective today.
Theme and Characters
The two plays focus on a common theme of mistaken identity manifest through a series of errors and confusions as misidentifications arise among the characters. They involve twins who are scripted as complex characters and are the center of focus. In Plautus’ Menaechmi Brothers, the play begins with a prologue featuring Moschus, a well-established trader in Syracuse.
Plautus (1892) said Moschus had twin boys named Menaechmus and Sosicles. According to Plautus (1892), Moschus travels with one of his sons, Menaechmus, on a business trip to a different Tarentum village. Sadly, Moschus loses sight of his son, Menaechmus, who is adopted by a wealthy merchant from the Greek city of Epidamnus (Plautus, 1892). The businessman happens to have no other child and takes good care of Menaechmus. Moschus is distraught by the loss of his son and gets sick, leading to his eventual demise.
Back in Syracuse, Moschus’s father gives his other grandson, Sosicles, the name Menaechmus in his memory following his supposed disappearance. Therefore, the two plays share the same name, Menaechmus, but only one takes place in Syracuse with his grandfather, while the other occurs in the distant town of Epidamnus. According to Plautus (1892), the original Menaechmus was blessed with an enormous fortune as the twin sons got older and married affluent women.
Menaechmus of Syracuse, now an adult, embarks on a mission to find his twin brother in Epidamnus (Plautus, 1892). Upon arrival in the town, he is unaware that his brother is well-known and there. He becomes perplexed that nearly everyone knows him, yet he doesn’t know anyone. This makes Messenio caution him not to trust anybody.
Characters in the play interact with the brothers without knowing who they are, which sparks an identity crisis. For instance, Plautus (1892) suggests that Erotium and Menaechmus of Epidamnus’ wife believe they speak to the same person they have known. However, unknown to them, they are talking to the twin brother.
A similar story unfolds in Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors, but the play does not begin with a prologue, which is one of its distinguishing elements. Another clear distinction in the play is the involvement of two sets of twins, as opposed to Plautus’ Menaechmi Brothers, which feature only one set of twins. Shakespeare’s play introduces two sets of twin brothers, Antipholus and Dromio.
Antipholus is Shakespeare’s counterpart to Plautus’ Menaechmus, while the Dromio twins were born to a poor mother. The twin couples separated during a shipwreck and ended up in Ephesus and Syracuse (Shakespeare, 2003). Later, the twins from Syracuse embarked on a journey to search for their compatriots. In Ephesus, Antipholus led a successful life and was actively involved in the city’s development, alongside Dromio, who served as his slave.
The arrival of Antipholus and Dromio in Ephesus sets the stage for the play, which is characterized by confusion and mistaken identity, much like in Plautus’ play Menaechmi. For instance, Antipholus of Syracuse is misidentified as Adriana’s husband in Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors. Unknown to her that he was her husband’s twin brother, she insisted on leaving with her to have dinner at home.
Antipholus of Syracuse leaves his slave to guard the door, and when her faithful husband, Antipholus of Ephesus, arrives, Dromio of Syracuse denies him entry into the house. Antipholus of Syracuse acquired a gold chain that had not been paid for in another incident. Antipholus of Ephesus is asked to pay, but he refuses, claiming he has not received it, which leads to his mistaken arrest.
Place / Location and Spirituality
The plays share a similarity in the setting or location on which they are based. Place refers to the location where the action takes place and defines the moves and decisions of the characters, as well as the adventure of the audience. Despite the considerable time difference in the plays and the specific location, they share a common contextual region in a coastal Hellenistic city.
Plautus’s Menaechmi Brothers takes place in Epidamnus, while Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors is enacted in Ephesus. In Menaechmi Brothers, Plautus portrays Epidamnus as a city rife with deceit and ambiguity (Plautus, 1892). The nature of the locale justifies the irrational activities occurring in the play. Shakespeare opts for a place that suits a more modern stage in The Comedy of Errors. Ephesus introduces a distinctive aspect of Christianity into Shakespeare’s play based on St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians as described in the Bible. The letter provides a basis for explaining the supernatural happenings that transpire for the Syracusans.
At the same time, another distinguishing element of spirituality is evident in the location of Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors. Shakespeare adapts this unique feature and manifests it through two central spiritual powers in the play. Ephesus appears to be filled with sorcery and evil, which explains why the Syracusans encounter strange events, a common feature in the play.
The Duke, for instance, believes that Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse are the ghosts of Antipholus and Dromio of Ephesus (Shakespeare, 2003). Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse similarly consider that magicians and wizards populate Ephesus. That is why they believe everyone in the city seems to know them, yet they are visitors.
In another incident, Adriana assumes that her groom is possessed and beseeches Pinch to exorcise him. The illustrations depict the relentless actions of mysticism that consume Ephesus. The events explain the surreal setting in which Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse find themselves and clarify their actions, which would otherwise be considered confusing. Despite the many illustrations of paganism, Ephesus is also filled with Christian imagery, such as Syracusan Antipholus’s indictment against the mistress.
Family Relations
Plautus’s Menaechmi Brothers do not clearly show the existence of an ideal family, even as it involves parents and their children. Plautus does not openly engage the mother of Menaechmi but mainly refers to Menaechmi of Ephesus’s wife. Even the prologue does not portray spouses or their children in a positive light, showcasing good family dynamics; instead, Plautus depicts a disturbed family in his work (Plautus, 1892).
On the other hand, Shakespeare deviates from his typical writing about love and affection, focusing on marriage and the center of a family unit. In The Comedy of Errors, Shakespeare demonstrates a strict adherence to family structures that allows the characters to be comic because they fail to observe the rules. For instance, Antipholus of Ephesus’ wife laments and complains about his abhorrent inability to fulfill his responsibilities as a husband (Shakespeare, 2003). His wife, Adriana, feels neglected and is filled with fury and jealousy upon hearing that he husband denied having a wife.
Critical Assessment of Plot
Even though Shakespeare incorporates many aspects of the original play, he gives the narrative his unique flair and refinements. The usage of identical characters who are confused for one another, resulting in humorous uncertainty and misunderstandings, is a crucial commonality between the two pieces. The Antipholus and Dromio twins, commonly mistaken for one another, are two sets of twins Shakespeare introduces as his unique twist. The story is further complicated and made funnier by this inclusion.
Both plays, in my opinion, address the concept of mistaken identification and the potential repercussions. Shakespeare, however, goes beyond this topic by employing it as a platform for societal critique. The drama emphasizes themes of relationships, family, class, and power. In my opinion, Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors is the more successful of the two plays, even if both are outstanding dramatic works in their own right. Shakespeare’s modifications and additions to the original narrative result in a more exciting and complicated storyline, and his use of humor and social criticism elevates the play beyond the level of a straightforward farce.
Conclusion
Menaechmi Brothers by Titus Maccius Plautus and The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare are two broadly similar plays developed by the two greatest playwrights. The two plays have succeeded independently, even as they are centered on familiar elements, such as the theme of mistaken identity, the use of comics, and themes of family and love. In particular, the theme of mistaken identity revolves around sets of twins; the Menaechmi in Plautus’ play and Antipholus in Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors.
However, some elements have critical differences, such as the use of spirituality in Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors. The Comedy of Errors was written several years after Menaechmi Brothers, and Shakespeare benefited from Plautus’ work. Shakespeare improved his play and developed a better plot by introducing a second set of twins, the Dromios. He achieved better success by integrating several storylines and characters with great satisfaction. Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors upholds the original intent of developing a comic play that people will continue to enjoy reading.
Reference
Plautus, T. M. (1892). Menaechmei. Deighton, Bell, and Company.
Shakespeare, W. (2003). The Comedy of Errors. Oxford University Press, USA.