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