The Comedy of Errors (Vol. 34) | Dorothea Kehler (essay date 1987)
Dorothea Kehler (essay date 1987)
SOURCE: "The Comedy of Errors as Problem Comedy," in Rocky Mountain Review, Vol. 41, No. 4, 1987, pp. 229-40.
[In this essay, Kehler argues that The Comedy of Errors is a problem play that has the appearance of a mixed-genre work.]
Many elements combine in The Comedy of Errors to create a genera mista: the tragicomedy of the Egeon frame, the romantic comedy of S. Antipholus's love for Luciana, the predominant farce of a mistaken-identity plot with its knockabout humor. The plot develops out of a series of quests: Egeon seeks his son and finds his family; S. Antipholus seeks his brother and finds Luciana; Adriana seeks her husband's love and finds … what? Despite the last-act clarification of identities, we wonder if Adriana and E. Antipholus will be happier in an off-stage act 6 than they were in act 2; we also wonder if Luciana, whose most moving speech descants on not...
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