Genre
drama; comedy
Language
English
Setting and Context
Ephesus (Greece) during antiquity
Narrator and Point of View
There is no singular narrator in the play, though Egeon's story in Act One about the loss of his family frames the rest of the plot.
Tone and Mood
chaotic, confused, playful, triumphant
Protagonist and Antagonist
There is no real antagonist in the play, as the only thing standing in the way of characters' happiness is their lack of understanding for what is going on around them.
Major Conflict
The play begins with the conflict of Egeon on trial, when he is sentenced to death if he cannot raise 1,000 marks by sunset. The central conflict then evolves to a conflict of mistaken identity, in which the confusion of the Antipholus and Dromio brothers delays the reunion of the long-separated family.
Climax
The climax occurs when Antipholus of Ephesus is being exorcised and Antipholus of Syracuse seeks refuge in a priory, as these are high points of tension that lead to the play's resolution.
Foreshadowing
The involvement of the abbess in the conflict between Adriana and her husband foreshadows the revelation of her true identity as Emilia, Egeon's lost wife.
Understatement
The play is rife with examples of language being used to understated effect, as Shakespeare crafts characters' speech so that they do not reveal too much about their identities to understand that they are all, in fact, strangers.
Allusions
The play makes frequent allusions to ancient Greek culture, mythology, and literature, as Ancient Greece serves as the setting for the play. It also anachronistically alludes to the Christian Bible, with which Shakespeare's audience would have been familiar.
Imagery
Important imagery in the play includes water, commerce, sameness, and the world.
Paradox
The central paradox of the play is that, just as he receives his death sentence, Egeon is finally in the same location as his entire family.
Parallelism
The two sets of twins are parallels of one another, as they both experience the confusion and chaos of mistaken identity in different (class-driven) ways.
Personification
N/A
Use of Dramatic Devices
The final act of the play brings all of the central characters on stage at the same time, as optics are central to the resolution of the performance (i.e., the other characters must see all the twins together in order to understand their own mistakes).
