The Meaning of The Comedy of Errors
While many view The Comedy of Errors as an early farce by the bard, Shakespeare injects it with an astonishing new dimension. He frames the entire play within two scenes quite foreign to the genre. These scenes grimly focus on a man being condemned to die for merely being a “Syracusian.” Thus, with almost alarming artistic originality, Shakespeare provides an ominous backdrop to the comedy, effectively transforming it from a mere farce into a powerful message for humanity.
The real “error” highlighted in The Comedy of Errors is not that of mistaken identity. It is something deeper. The real error—that the play focuses on—is our distorted perception of reality because we mistake the artificial labels—that we bestow upon ourselves—as being inherently real.
In The Comedy of Errors, Shakespeare sets up a thematic resonance on how we reify labels illogically, in a way that may lead to tragic consequences. In particular, the labels “Syracusian” and “Ephesian” are considered, by our deluded perception, to be inherently real. So real, in fact, that one’s life can be forfeit for merely possessing the wrong label!
The irony is that the Syracusian and Ephesian pair of twins cannot be distinguished from one another, which is, in fact, the basis for the comedy. This is the key point: it is illogical to discriminate between them because of their labels. Yet the mere label of “Syracusian” is a death warrant!
While The Comedy of Errors does barely escape a tragic end—courtesy of extraordinarily fortuitous circumstances—the situation in real life may not be as fortunate. The message in the play is thus a crucial one, and Shakespeare characteristically conveys its meaning by making us live through it.
Our propensity for reifying our artificial labels has dire consequences in the real world. They introduce a jarring sense of separation that is unnatural, and could end tragically. Throughout history, millions have been killed because of such a distorted view of reality. In this age of nuclear weaponry, we urgently need to see past our labels to sense the unifying depth of humanity; to continue being blinded by our labels is to risk an apocalyptic catastrophe.
Shakespeare has meticulously crafted every scene in each of his plays to convey its sage message to humanity, using three unique techniques: cohesive unity, thematic resonance and focused allegorical scenes. I have written three books on how Shakespeare has done this in five of his plays: Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, The Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew, and Romeo & Juliet. But the same is true for practically all his plays.
What this means is that Shakespeare is an even greater literary genius than previously thought, and his plays are more wonderful and profound than previously imagined.
A full exploration of how Shakespeare instils the meaning of The Comedy of Errors throughout the entire play can be found in my book: The Mystical Art of Shakespeare Volume I: The Meaning of Much Ado About Nothing & The Comedy of Errors.