Menaechmi

..: 1). Federick S. Frank later described it in a broader sense, namely as “a second self or alternate identity, sometimes, but not always, a physical twin” (1987: 435). Nowadays, this term can indicate a twin, a look-alike, a phantom double, a mirror image, an evil double, a portrait or a monster who often has a different or opposing personality from the original character. A double can be part of the real world or only of the protagonist’s mind, and can represent a “a division of the self, in which there is not a split but rather the appearance of another character that is very similar in many ways to the initial character and oftentimes anonymous being” (Gamache ...: 3-4). In literature, the double motif first appeared in the play Menaechmi by Plautus, where two twin brothers have the same name, but it was made popular by Jean-Paul’s Hesperus (1795) and Siebenkäs (1796). Other examples involving elements of doubling are two German Gothic works by E.T.A. Hoffmann, Die Elixiere des Teufels (The Devil’s Elixir) (1815-16) and “Die Doppelgänger” (The Doppelgänger) (1821), Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818; 1823), Edgar Allan Poe’s William Wilson (1839) and Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886). In the 19th century, thanks to the renewed interest of the Romantic movement and Gothic fiction in the matter, the figure of the doppelgänger took on a new complexity and significance. Discoveries in science and psychology enabled people to understand…

of the Roman slave motifs prior to Terence. Amerasinghe goes even further to claim that Plautus’ and many other playwrights use of slaves as deus ex machinas was symptomatic of poor writing. McCarthy disagrees with Amerasinghe claiming that the key to understanding Plautine slavery is to understand why society seemed affixed to slavery in plays but seemed to ignore it in daily life. She argues that slavery in Plautine comedy was designed specifically to alleviate the slave’s master’s guilt and —…

As with many of his plays, Shakespeare drew on classical sources for the plot of the Comedy of Errors. The bare bones of the story are drawn from the Roman comedy Menaechmi, written by the ancient dramatist Plautus. Shakespeare might have read the play either in the original Latin or in an English translation that was published in 1594 but may have circulated in manuscript from before that year…

seven years after Shakespeare’s death, and is Shakespeare’s shortest play and one of his eighteen comedies. The main characters of the play are identical twin brothers, both named Antipholus, who have been separated when they were children. Each brother is accompanied by his servant, and these servants also happen to be identical twins who share the name Dromio. One Antipholus and Dromio grow up in Ephesus, while the other pair grows up in Syracuse. The action begins when Antipholus and Dromio…