The Comedy of Errors - Investigation on the lost & found theme in Shakespeare's shortest play

Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,3, University of Dusseldorf 'Heinrich Heine', course: Hauptseminar: A Shakespeare Survey: Comedies, Tragedies and Histories, language: English, abstract: During my research for this paper I learned that, in comparison to the other Shakespearian plays,The Comedy of Errorshas been only relatively little reviewed and criticized. The play ranks withLove's Labours LostandThe Two Gentlemen of Veronato the so-called Early Comedies, and therefore some scholars deem the style not as refined and as perfect as in Shakespeare's later plays. Some even consider the play not to be written by the master himself but to be 'the work of an inferior playwright, a bookish exercise, or an apprentice piece'1, which was only lectured by Shakespeare. They say that the play is an adaptation toMenaechmiby Plautus, but without its intensity, because the main focus lies on the comical elements of the play while Plautus stresses the tragedy in the story. ThereforeThe Comedy of Errorsis often seen in a very limited dimension. In this paper I will show thatThe Comedy of Errorsis more than simply a poor adaptation of the ancient Plautine material and that 'there is more substance to the play than the obvious noisy surface action, which seems often to have absorbed critics' attention, to the exclusion of everything else.' This quote is probably the best-known of the whole play and represents one of the main themes of the play. All the characters seem to be on a constant search for someone or something they have lost. After a short introduction to the play, its reception and its sources, the main focus of the paper will lie on the investigation of the lost and found theme inThe Comedy of Errors.This aspect will be enlightened from different angles and from the perspective of the play's characters. The direct search for a person will be analyzed as well as the seeking for love, harmony, family and identity.