The Comedy of Errors

What techniques does Shakespeare use to create comedy? How is the play a comedy according to early modern conventions, and how is it a comedy to present-day audiences?

Various characters experience sudden reversals of status, situation, and/or even identity throughout the play. What do these transformations and reversals reveal about the play’s conceptions of identity and status?

How are women presented in the play? Explore the female characters’ personalities and beliefs, and the roles they play. What does the play suggest about early modern gender roles and expectations?

The Comedy of Errors was written as a piece of live theatre to be experienced, not a text to be read. How might the play change when experienced onstage versus read on a page? How does Shakespeare use the text to give clues about staging and/or character portrayals? (Note: Stage directions are generally added by later editors).

How does the play present religion and the supernatural? How do people respond to things they can’t understand, and how do their reactions tie into their ideas of sanity or “madness”?

What is the role of love in the play? How does it explore marital love, familial love, platonic love, and/or sexual love?

The play closely examines the influence of commerce and wealth in the social lives of the characters. In what ways do money and materialism influence the interpersonal relationships in the text?

What role does reputation and honor play in the text? How do various characters conceive of these concepts, and how do they shape their characterization and experiences in the play?