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The Seriousness of The Comedy of Errors
The Comedy of Errors has often been dismissed as a mere farce, unworthy of any serious attention. Yet, when the author is Shakespeare, even a "farce" is well worth a second look. Shakespeare himself may have takent his comedic work quite seriously, for audiences expected comedy of his day not only to entertain, but also to morally instruct. It is not surprising, therefore, that for one of his earliest comedies, Shakespeare found a model in the plays of Plautus and Terence, which were studied in all Elizabethan Grammar Schools, praised by schoolmasters, and critically respectable. (Muir 3)
The Menaechmi was the first Plautus play to appear in translation, and was a popular school text (Muir 16). Amphitruo, the second Plautus play informing The Comedy of Errors, was available in English translation by 1562-63, and was similarly taught (Miola 22). Plautus and Terence texts served the schools not as entertainment, but as teaching tools for literature and both oral Latin and vernacular languages. Schoolmasters even used prepared study guides to the plays in their instruction:
The academic approbation of Roman comedy in the Renaissance was largely a linguistic, rhetorical, and didactic enterprize: commentators provided lexical and metrical information, expository paraphrase, grammatical analysis, explanatory notes, classical cross references, and the identification of rhetorical figures. (Miola 4)
Richard Bernard, for example, translator of the first complete bilingual edition of Terence, organized from the text a helpful list of Formulae loquendi (phrases useful for Latin conversation) and Sententiae (wise sayings) to accompany each scene (Muir 4). If no w...
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...owever, indicates that Shakespeare meant The Comedy of Errors to provide more than just a good laugh.
Works Cited and Consulted
* Brockett, Oscar G. History of the Theatre. Fifth ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1987.
* Epstein, Norris. The Friendly Shakespeare. New York: Viking, 1993.
* Miola, Robert S. Shakespeare and Classical Comedy: The Influence of Plautus and Terence. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994.
* Muir, Kenneth. Shakespeare's Comic Sequence. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1979.
* Riehle, Wolfgang. Shakespeare, Plautus, and the Humanist Tradition. Cambridge: Brewer, 1990.
* Shaheen, Naseeb. Biblical References in Shakespeare's Comedies. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1993.
* Shakespeare, William. The Riverside Shakespeare. Ed. G. Blakemore Evans, et al. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1974.
Tea Cake - Janie's third husband. He is understanding and warm. As he accepts her as herself, he also gets worked up and harms her a few times.
The Towns people and Janie’s best friend Pheoby are skeptical of Tea Cake’s intentions. They think Tea Cake is after Janie’s money and widowhood. However, Janie explains to Pheoby, “Tea Cake ain’t draggin me off nowhere Ah don’t want tuh go. Ah always did want tuh git round uh whole heap, but Jody wouldn’t ‘low me tuh. When Ah wasn’t in de store he wanted me tuh jes sit wid folded hand and sit dere.” Janie admitted her desire to get up and go wherever she pleased. Joe, however, did not want his woman to be wise or conscious of the world around them so he kept her confined and immobile in the store. Janie loved Tea Cake because he was not threatened by her desire to be adventurous. Janie loved the fact that Tea Cake treated her with class as an equal and intelligent person. “He set it (the checkers) up and began to show her and she found herself glowing inside. Somebody wanted her to play. Somebody thought it natural for her to play.” Tea Cake proved he was not self-absorbed like Logan or Joe. He presented Janie with a chance to finally experience the love she has been pursuing her entire life. Janie had only known men who took pleasure in pleasing themselves; however, Tea Cake took pleasure in pleasing her. This endeared him to her and brought them mutual happiness. Janie loved Tea Cake because he was open with her. He was determined to do anything to please her if he saw she was unhappy. Unlike Logan and Joe,
At the beginning of Janie's life she was trying, and learning new things. She was trying to find herself and figure out what she truly wants in a husband. When Janie was young, she was well involved with family and friends. She did not have a mom so nanny took care of her and she always was with The Washburns. “Den dey all laughed real hard. But before Ah seen de picture Ah thought Ah wuz just like de rest.”(9) Janie never knew that she was different from
From the moment Janie and Tea Cake met, shortly after Joe’s death, they had an undeniable connection. Janie’s other husbands, Logan and Joe, tried to suppress Janie’s creative and spirited personality, but Tea Cake encourages it. To his credit, Tea Cake shows Janie what it is like to live life to the fullest, they have jobs and make money, but are always up for adventure and a good time. Joe treats Janie with more respect, and does not hold her down and hide her like Joe. When Janie and Tea Cake move to the Everglades they spend a lot of time with their neighbors having fun. “The men held big arguments here like they used to do on the store porch. Only here, she could listen and laugh and even talk some herself if she wanted to. She got so she could tell big stories herself from listening to the rest” (134). With Tea Cake, Janie could be her own person, and join in on the fun. Without Janie being squashed down all the time, her personality flourished and with that came her identity. It is important to point out that Janie’s identity was not dependent on Tea Cake. The very beginning of the book starts with Janie returning to the town that she and Tea Cake left, and Janie is full of confidence that she never had before. “The women took the faded shirt and muddy overalls and laid them away for remembrance. It was a weapon against her strength and if it turned out of
During her first marriage to Logan Killicks, Janie is young and naive. Her Grandmother notices her growing romantic curiosity and forces Janie to marry in an effort to avoid a young pregnancy. She voices her opinions to her Grandmother:
When Janie starts telling us her journey she starts off by saying how she used to live in a plantation with her grandmother. Janie was a young girl when her grandmother caught
The main character by the name of Janie Mae first marriage came about as a setup from her grandmother. She was married to a much older man named Logan Killicks. Janie despised every second of having to be forced to marry Logan. The relationship they shared was very distant and depressing. There was no love put into the relationship which is one thing Janie longed for. Janie even told her grandmother one morning, “I’d rather be shot with tacks than to turn over in the
In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston portrays Janie’s story as she tries to find happiness. Through many obstacles and three abusive marriages, Janie Woods eventually becomes content with the things she has done and the life she has lived. Like Janie, as people age they become more wise through experiences. Then, younger people like myself look to these people when in need of motivation or advice. This group of people includes famous poets like Bertrand Russell, Walter B Pinkin, Eugene O’Neill, and Tom Lehrer. Hurston conveys quotes from each of these people when telling Janie’s life story.
She realized that she married him only because of Nanny’s wishes, and she did not - and was never going to - love him. It was with this realization that her “first dream was dead, so she became a woman” (25) And although the “memory of Nanny was still powerful and strong”, (29) Janie left with Joe Starks. However her marriage to Jody was no better than her marriage to Logan. Jody was powerful and demanding, and although at first he seemed amazing, Jody forced Janie into a domestic lifestyle that was worse than the one that she escaped. Jody abused Janie both emotionally and physically, and belittled her to nothing more than a trophy wife. But Janie never left him. This time Janie stayed in the abusive marriage until he died, because Janie did not then know how to the tools capable of making her a sovereign person. She once again chose caution over nature, because caution was the safest option. And overtime she became less and less Janie, and less and less of her sovereign self, and eventually, “the years took all the fight out of Janie’s face. For a while she thought it was gone from her soul...she had learned how to talk some and leave some. She was a rut in the road. Plenty of life beneath the surface but it was kept beaten down by the wheels” (76). During her marriage to Jody, Janie never got it right. She was trapped under Jodi’s command and because of this she never
Janie Crawford was forced into a relationship with Logan Killicks unwillingly by her Grandmother, Nanny. When marrying Logan, she had to learn to love him for who he was and what he did. She never had the chance to know him before marriage. In the text, she says, "Ah'll cut de p'taters fuh yuh. When you comin' back?". (Hurston, 26) This was something that she did not enjoy doing. She had to follow his directions and do as she was told. Janie was trapped in this marriage with no self-esteem. She was dependent on Logan when it came to doing things such as chores around the house. As time passed, Logan had told her, "If Ah kin haul de wood heah and chop it fuh yuh, look lak you oughta be able tuh tote it inside.... You done been spoilt rotten." (Hurston, 25). Day after day, she would follow his directions, being so dependent on his orders; until one day, Joe Starks came into her life.
Clark, W. G. and Wright, W. Aldis , ed. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. Vol. 1. New York: Nelson-Doubleday
Shakespeare, William. The Norton Shakespeare. Edited Stephen Greenblatt et al. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1997.
Cohen, Walter, J.E. Howard, K. Eisaman Maus. The Norton Shakespeare. Vol. 2 Stephen Greenblatt, General Editor. New York, London. 2008. ISBN 978-0-393-92991-1
Aristotle. Poetics. Trans. Gerald F. Else. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 1967. Dorsch, T. R., trans. and ed. Aristotle Horace Longinus: Classical Literary Criticism. New York: Penguin, 1965. Ley, Graham. The Ancient Greek Theater. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1991. Reinhold, Meyer. Classical Drama, Greek and Roman. New York: Barrons, 1959.
Wilders, John. "The Problem Comedies." In Wells, Stanley, ed. Shakespeare: Select Bibliographical Guides. London: Oxford UP, 1973.