This response paper is for “comedy of errors” and also France’s dolans introduction to the play. After reading France’s dolans introduction to the play answer these questions.
1. Consider what aspects of her essay point to ideas of queerness in the most expansive meaning of the word. She discusses in particular the problems of “sameness” with respect to antipholus of Syracuse’s loss of identity and the idea that in marriage two people become one. Her discussion of Adriana’s speech on marriage reveals how a marriage convention that people often take for granted– that two people become one in marriage– can be strange or “queer” from a different perspective.
2. In your view what is the strangest of sameness? How does the strangeness differ from that of difference?
3. At the time the play was first performed, all of the actors on stage were male. All the parts were played by men and boys. Does knowing this change in any way how you respond to the play? Does the play in some way also explore queerness in the way we usually think of it today? If so, how? If not, why?