The Comedy of Errors Duty

Egeon shows that he puts duty to his family above his own needs and intuitions. He says he was ready to die, except for the complaints of his wife, and the consequent weeping of all of the children. He also shows that he accepts responsibility for his family – his duty to them as a husband and father is to figure out how to make things work.

It seems the relationship between S. Antipholus and S. Dromio extends beyond that of master/attendant. The two take delight in each other, and it seems S. Dromio’s even able to get his melancholy master into better spirits sometimes. This is more than duty – it’s friendship.

Luciana seems to assert that a woman’s duty is to be patient, and they should be glad to do their duty to their men. (This is controversial, given Adriana’s position as the potential victim of her husband’s adultery.)

Luciana’s response to Adriana’s strident challenge seems to reveal that Luciana views marriage as some kind of necessity; she’ll try the holy union even if she might fail at being a good wife, or, worse, getting hurt. This quote shows how her duty to marry is an ought in women’s lives. (This stance is also in contrast to Shakespeare’s more headstrong, anti-marriage heroines, like Beatrice from Mucho Ado About Nothing.)

S. Antipholus reiterates that S. Dromio is his servant, regardless of the warm relationship they have together. The insinuation is that S. Dromio should tend to his duty before he tends to the tenuous friendship between the men. It seems the master/servant relationship is well-defined between the two, all the while their friendship is delicate and dependent upon S. Dromio’s performance as a servant. By beating and lecturing S. Dromio, S. Antipholus proves that he won’t hesitate to remind S. Dromio of his place.

S. Antipholus has decided his first duty should be to himself, even if he doesn’t exactly have a perfect notion of his own identity. He trades his love for Luciana for safety against the threat of "self-wrong."

S. Dromio seems to ignore all of the craziness going on by focusing on his duty. Even the Ephesian madness doesn’t make any sense, he’s just going to do as he’s told, because it’s his duty. Just as S. Antipholus hides behind cheap explanations of sorcery to excuse himself from finding the complex truth of the matter, S. Dromio hides behind duty.

E. Dromio, like S. Dromio, recognizes that he’s longsuffering. Though he chafes under it, it’s all he’s known since the moment he was born. It’s his duty to care for and endure his master. Still, it seems like E. Antipholus’s relationship with E. Dromio is less friendly and warm than S. Antipholus’s relationship with S. Dromio, which is revealing about either brother.

This is really interesting – though Luciana has been counseling her sister to relax, she’s the one who stands up against the Abbess on Adriana’s behalf. In contrast, Adriana shuts her mouth, lays down, and takes it. Even before this lecture, she’s kind of known that it was her wifely duty to be quiet and un-nagging (no matter how much she was wronged). The Abbess serves as a reminder to Adriana of her duty.