The Comedy of Errors

What is Comedy of Errors about?

In the play, Aegeon, a merchant of Syracuse, is arrested in Ephesus because of hostilities between the two cities. Unable to pay the local ransom, he is condemned to death. He tells Duke Solinus his sad tale: years earlier he and his wife had been shipwrecked with their infant sons, identical twins, and a pair of infant servants, who were also identical twins. The parents, each with a son and a servant, were rescued but then permanently separated. Antipholus of Syracuse, the son raised by Aegeon, has for five years been seeking his mother and brother, while Aegeon in turn has been seeking his missing son. Ageon’s story wins the Duke of  Solinus over, to raise the ransom money.

Meanwhile, Antipholus of Syracuse (with his servant, Dromio) has arrived in Ephesus. He does not know that his brother Antipholus of Ephesus (with his own servant, also named Dromio) is already there. A series of misidentifications ensue. Antipholus of Syracuse is entertained by his brother’s wife and woos her sister. He receives a gold chain meant for his brother and is chased by a goldsmith for nonpayment. Antipholus of Syracuse and his servant hide in a priory, where they observe Ageon on his way to execution, and they recognize the priory’s abbess as Antipholus’s mother, Aemelia. The play ends happily with Ageon’s ransom paid, true identities revealed, and the family reunited.