Psychoanalysis In Shakespeare's The Comedy Of Errors

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Shakespeare’s play: The Comedy of Errors tells the story of twin brothers, Antipholus of Syracuse and Antipholus of Ephesus, along with their twin servants, Dromio of Syracuse and Dromio of Ephesus, who were separated at birth. The twins grew up in completely different places and led totally different lives until the Antipholus of Syracuse goes looking for his brother. The twins’ two lives intertwine when friends and family confuse the two sets of twins for the other. Eventually Adriana, Antipholus of Ephesus ' wife, begins to think he has gone mad and brings him to an abbey where everyone meets and the conflict is resolved. Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis, humor and account of the ego can be applied to The Comedy of Errors. Throughout this essay we I will address the following questions: Can we actually use psychoanalysis in analyzing Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors? How does this particular play relate to Freud’s understanding of humour? Does Freud’s account of the ego fit Shakespeare’s characterization of the self? Freudians psychoanalytical theory, his view on humor and his account of the ego can be applied to Shakespeares play The Comedy of Errors.

Psychoanalytic theory argues that human behavior can be explained bt a result of interaction of three component parts of the mind being the id, ego, and super ego. In other words, the psychoanalytic theory provides us with …show more content…

This is then followed by the opening of ego boundaries, and by the substitution of ego functions. We soon learn that the “splitting process” is simply just a healing activity. The reason for this is the twins have finally realized that they were stepping on each other’s feet – in other words, they were accidentally opening up themselves to varying points of view. With in this psychoanalytical principles of splitting, denial, and projection are

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