SOURCE: MacCary, W. Thomas. “The Comedy of Errors.” In Friends and Lovers: The Phenomenology of Desire in Shakespearean Comedy, pp. 81-90. New York: Columbia University Press, 1985.

In the essay below, MacCary maintains that Antipholus of Syracuse is the primary focus of The Comedy of Errors, noting that his search for his brother may be viewed as a search for himself.

A common structural aspect of the early comedies is delayed marriage; this fact emphasizes the importance to these plays of the young male's trepidation at committing himself physically and emotionally to a woman. In three of these plays the alternative of identification with other males is first tried, and then, only with regret, dismissed as inadequate. In The Two Gentlemen of Verona and Love's Labor's Lost the other males are friends, but in The Comedy of Errors the protagonist seeks his twin brother, whom he speaks of as...