Identity Disorder And Plot Construction In Shakespeare’s Comedies

William Shakespeare is the greatest playwright in the Renaissance.In Shakespeare’s comedies,love is not a simple subject and the course of true love is not smooth.The protagonists tend to meet with difficulties,but after mistakes,coincidences and wrangles,difficulties are overcome,misunderstanding is dispelled and love stories have happy endings.Shakespeare is a master of artistic skills,and the plots about confusion and inappropriate matchmaking in his comedies are developed by means of the artistic arrangement of mistaken identity.Identity disorder is one way that Shakespeare often uses to construct comparatively complicated plots in comedies.The previous identity of characters is revealed in different situations,then the false identity is assumed due to different factors,and at last the true identity is recognized.This thesis makes an attempt to analyze the three artistic skills that Shakespeare uses the coincidence,mask,and magic to cause identity disorder and to drive plots by a case study of The Comedy of Errors,Love’s Labour’s Lost and A Midsummer Night’s Dream in order to clarify the fact that apart from being amusing and joyful the comparatively complicated plot is also one of the significant reasons why the comic art of Shakespeare wins victory in fascinating readers.There are three chapters apart from the introduction and the conclusion part in this thesis.The introduction part is concerned with the basic information about William Shakespeare and his three comedies The Comedy of Errors,Love’s Labour’s Lost and A Midsummer Night’s Dream,with literature review,and with theoretical foundation.In chapter one,the artistic skill is analyzed that Shakespeare uses coincidences to cause identity disorder and to drive the plot by a case study of The Comedy of Errors.Firstly,Shakespeare constructs a structural coincidence at the beginning of the play,which provides a situation where the following series of contributing coincidences occurs.The merchant of Syracuse Egeon is sentenced by Duke of Ephesus for he has violated the law of Ephesus and failed to pay the ransom of one thousand marks.Duke acts as a protatic figure in the process of urging Egeon to tell his life story,so that the previous identity of characters and their relationships are revealed.Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse,as master and servant,come to Ephesus to seek their family separated from them shortly after their birth,whose twin brothers happen to live there.Then a series of contributing coincidences is presented.Due to the identical appearances and names,identity disorder occurs between masters and servants,and between Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse and the relatives and acquaintances of Antipholus and Dromio of Ephesus.In the end,a philosophical coincidence makes it possible for all the characters in the play to gather so that the true identity of characters could be recognized and misunderstanding of lovers could be removed.In chapter two,the artistic skill is analyzed that Shakespeare uses masks to cause identity disorder and to drive the plot by a case study of Love’s Labour’s Lost.Firstly,Shakespeare reveals the previous identity of characters through establishing and breaking a contract.The King and three lords of Navarre,against the term of the contract they have made at the beginning of the play,fall in love with the Princess and three ladies coming from France who are sent on a diplomatic mission to Navarre.Then,the disguise and carnival of the two sides are presented.The four men of Navarre dress themselves up as Russians in order to pay court to their beloved and,having heard of their plan ahead of time,the four ladies of France wear masks and exchange the favors they have received from the men.In the masquerade ball,even though the men identify their lovers by the favors and thus identity disorder is caused,both sides enjoy carnival freedom.Later,both sides meet again and show their true features.The disguise of the two sides is revealed,and the true identity is recognized.In the end,the four ladies of France respectively make contracts of love with their wooers of Navarre.In chapter three,the artistic skill is analyzed that Shakespeare uses magic to cause identity disorder and to drive the plot by a case study of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.Firstly,Shakespeare presents the escalation of conflict between Hermia and her father Egeus in front of Duke,and reveals the previous identity of characters.Then,Shakespeare inserts the wood where the magic flower love-in-idleness enables Lysander and Demetrius,who have competed for the love of Hermia,fall in love with another lady called Helena.Thus identity disorder and misunderstanding are caused.After another herb dispels the magic of love-in-idleness on Lysander,the four protagonists are in pairs.In the end,the conflict between Hermia and her father Egeus is resolved.After waking up,they four go back to Athens and form couples with the permission of Duke.In conclusion,the comparatively complicated plot is one of the significant reasons why people cannot resist the charm of Shakespeare’s comedies.Shakespeare constructs the plot about identity disorder according to the narrative sequences which are the revelation of previous identity,assumption of false identity and recognition of true identity,and the coincidence,mask and magic are the three factors Shakespeare use in different situations to cause identity disorder and to drive the plots to come to an end in comedies.These three artistic skills show the considerable talent for artistic creation of Shakespeare as a playwright and display the rough way and colorful process of gaining true love in Shakespeare’s comedies.