“The Comedy of Errors” (post 1) by William Shakespeare: Twins and doubling (metaphors for multiple personality) in both Elizabethan comedy and Ancient Rome

Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors (1594) is usually said to be an adaptation of Menaechmi by the Roman playwright Plautus (c 254-184 BC). But “The differences between Menaechmi and The Comedy of Errors are clear. In Menaechmi, Plautus uses only one set of twins—twin brothers. Shakespeare, on the other hand, uses two sets of twins….like Plautus' Amphitruo, in which both twin masters and twin slaves appear…It can be noted that the doubling is a stock situation of Elizabethan comedy” (1).

“…transformation, metamorphosis, madness—these and related processes and states constitute a central motif, running through the play from beginning to end…Words such as changed and transformed echo throughout” (2, Introduction, p. 52 ).

Comment: As previously discussed, twins and doubling are metaphors for multiple personality.  Also, search “metamorphosis” (Kafka) and “Nausea” (Sartre’s novel involving protagonist’s “sudden transformations”) for past discussions of their implications for multiple personality.

1. Wikipedia. “Plautus." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plautus

2. William Shakespeare. The Comedy of Errors. Edited by Charles Whitworth. Oxford World Classics. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2002.