Shakespeare Mistaken Identity

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Shakespeare’s use of mistaken identity in his plays creates humor that is popular today. Among the thirty-seven plays he wrote, mistaken identity often using disguise is a common theme. Mistaken identity is a plot device that dates back to the writers named Menander and Plautus in ancient Greek and Roman times (Kiryakakis 1). Shakespeare borrowed the idea to create comedies that are still read and performed over four hundred years after they were written. Authors today still follow Shakespeare’s model to create modern day comedies using the literary device of mistaken identity. Furthermore, in everyday life in the modern world there are opportunities for mistaken identity to show through texting and email because they do not require face-to-face …show more content…
Cyrano de Bergerac is a play by Edmond Rostand and was written in 1897. In Cyrano de Bergerac, a man named Cyrano is in love with Roxane. Cyrano is a man of intellect and eloquence in writing and speaking. However, he lacks confidence because of his enormous nose. Roxane is in love with Christian who is good-looking but lacks the intellect, wit and eloquence of Cyrano. Mistaken identity is intentionally used by Cyrano’s voice through letters and is used by Christian to convince Roxane of his love. However, it is Cyrano’s words of sincere love for Roxane she really hears as she reads Christian’s letters. Another example of mistaken identity is The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain which includes a humorous incident involving mistaken identity. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck shows up at house of Tom Sawyer’s aunt who lives far away and has never before seen Tom or his younger brother Sid. As Aunt Sally is expecting Tom, a boy shows up at her house. Huck pretends to be Tom and when Tom shows up, he pretends to be Sid. Together, they turn their mistaken identity into a joke and an adventure to fool Aunt Sally. In a separate incident, Huck dresses like a girl to go to town to find out the latest news about his disappearance. However he is not very believable as a girl because he cannot thread a needle when “tested” by a woman he meets and forgets his made-up “girl name” (Twain 58). In addition to novels and plays, several movies have been made with mistaken identity as a main theme such as Roxanne, Parent Trap, Let it Shine, She’s the Man and The Truth about Cats and Dogs. Just as Shakespeare based his ideas of mistaken identity on ancient Greek writers, authors since Shakespeare’s time have borrowed his ideas and plots to create

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