Why does the Abbess blame Adriana first because she did not find fault with her husband and then because she did?  Is her sudden harsh turn against her explicable not as personal inconsistency or womanly prejudice, but as due to a gleam of insight?  What clew to the case does Adriana’s meekness afford?  Or else of the relationship of the Abbess to the twins?  Why does she so peremptorily keep the man from his wife?  Is not this conduct devised to mystify the audience rather than the characters?

Notice that the Abbess is more of a surprise in her relation to the plot than the condemned Egean is.  The Abbess episode balances at the close of the Play the Egean episode at the opening of the story.  Trace the links of connection with the main action of each and their relation to each other, showing how they bind into an absolute unity a peculiarly symmetrical plot.  Why do the two Dromios end the Play instead of the main characters?

QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION

Is this Play the better or worse farce for the serious domestic situation and the pathos of the long separation of the shipwrecked family?

VI

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

In what sense can there be said to be a development of character in “The Comedie of Errors?” If no progress can be traced in the standpoint of any one character of the Play, save possibly in that of Adriana, is there yet not to be seen a gradual bringing forward of the traits inwardly differentiating the two pairs of twins, and stamping the personality of Adriana and Luciana and even in a slighter degree of the Goldsmith, the Creditor Merchant, Egean, and the Abbess?

Show what you deem this to be in each character, and by what means the result in each is effected.

Is Antipholus the Stranger of a gentler and more pious spirit than Antipholus the Native?  What signs of this impression can you cite?  Was Antipholus the Native popular in Ephesus?  What calling had he followed?  Why do we learn more of Antipholus the Stranger at once than of his brother?  In what respects does this suit the plot and the circumstances?

Which Dromio do you think the wittier?  Is one more a house servant and less of a personal attendant and professional fool than the other?  Why, do you think, is Antipholus the Stranger made to beat his man so often?  Is his quick temper, or a sort of horse-play fun at the bottom of it?  Or is the ancient custom as to body servants exemplified?

Which Antipholus has been the more independently reared and is this signified in their characters?  It has been supposed that Antipholus the Native married at the Duke’s bidding for money and not for love.  What reason does the Play give for this supposition?  Is Adriana’s jealousy a reason, or is he fonder of her than she realizes?  Which of the Sisters do you like best, and why?