55 pages • 1-hour read
The Comedy of Errors
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Act IVChapter Summaries & Analyses
Act IV, Scene 1 Summary
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes depictions of violence, misogyny, and period-typical depictions of mental illness.
The Second Merchant brings an Officer of the law to Angelo the goldsmith. Angelo owes him money, and though he was relaxed about it before, he is now setting sail on a journey and needs the funds urgently. He threatens to arrest Angelo if he doesn’t pay. Angelo assures him that he is in turn owed money by Antipholus for a chain necklace. He suggests they all go to his house, where he has promised to hand over the money.
Antipholus of Ephesus and Dromio of Ephesus happen upon them. Antipholus sends Dromio off to buy some rope, which he plans to use on his wife and her allies as punishment for locking him out. Angelo gives him the receipt for the chain, asking for payment so he can settle with the merchant. Antipholus asks for the chain; Angelo says he already gave it to him. They argue indignantly, with Angelo demanding payment and Antipholus demanding the chain. The merchant again threatens to have Angelo arrested if he is not paid. Angelo instead pays the Officer to arrest Antipholus.
Dromio of Syracuse enters, and tells Antipholus that he has found them a ship to leave on. Antipholus furiously tells him he was only supposed to get some rope. He sends Dromio to Adriana to get help, instructing him to bring a purse of money to pay his bail. In the meantime, the Officer leads him away to prison. Dromio reluctantly sets off for Adriana’s, afraid of the maid who claims him as her lover.
Act IV, Scene 2 Summary
Adriana and Luciana are in the middle of a conversation: Luciana has told Adriana that Antipholus has propositioned her, and Adriana is very distressed. She questions Luciana about exactly how he looked, what he said, and how she responded. Luciana says that in honest circumstances, his proposition would have been courteous and convincing, but that she reminded him of his duty to Adriana. Adriana insults him vigorously, and Luciana points out she has no need to be jealous if that’s really what she thinks of him. Adriana admits that her words don’t reflect her heart.
Dromio of Syracuse runs in panting. He asks for the money in the drawer, telling them that Antipholus has been arrested in the street. He is baffled as to why a seemingly friendly stranger would do this. Adriana is shocked that Antipholus is secretly in debt. Dromio mentions that it relates to a chain, but urges everyone to hurry. At Adriana’s prompting, he goes on a tangent about time, using wordplay to make witty and absurd observations. Luciana brings in the money and Adriana sends Dromio away to free Antipholus. She stays indoors with Luciana, exhausted by her emotions.
Act IV, Scene 3 Summary
Antipholus of Syracuse is disconcerted by his experiences. Strangers in the street greet him as if they know him, using his name. Some of them give him invitations or money, or discuss commodities they are preparing for him: A tailor just showed him some silks he claimed to have bought for him. Antipholus fears these apparent niceties reveal that this is a dangerous land of sorcerers.
Dromio of Syracuse runs in with the money for Antipholus of Ephesus’s bail. He sees Antipholus of Syracuse walking freely and asks what has happened to the Officer who arrested him. Antipholus doesn’t know what he is talking about. He asks if Dromio has managed to find a ship for them to leave on. Dromio recounts that he already told him he did, right before he was detained. Antipholus fears they have both gone “mad” and prays to be delivered from danger.
The Courtesan enters. She sees Antipholus with the chain and asks him to give it to her as promised. In their terror, he and Dromio think she is a witch or a demon: They charge her to leave them be. She notes that they are both in a comedic mood today, and invites them to dinner with her, but they rebuff her again. She says that Antipholus took her valuable ring from her at dinner, promising her a chain in return: If he won’t give her the chain, he must give her back her ring.
They again accuse her of witchery before fleeing. The Courtesan concludes that Antipholus must have gone “mad.” She has heard the story of Adriana locking him out of their home, and she now thinks that she must have done this because he was behaving erratically. She decides to go to Adriana’s house and tell her that Antipholus broke into her house and took her ring in a fit of “madness.” She can’t afford to lose the ring if she is not reimbursed.
Act IV, Scene 4 Summary
The Officer is still holding Antipholus of Ephesus under arrest. Antipholus reassures him that Dromio will return soon with money for the bail. Dromio of Ephesus enters with the rope he was sent to get. When Antipholus asks for the money, he says he spent it on the rope as instructed. This infuriates Antipholus, as the purse that he sent the other Dromio to get contained a huge amount of money, far more than necessary to buy a rope. He beats Dromio with the rope. The Officer tries to calm them both down, in vain. Dromio laments how he has served Antipholus faithfully since birth, but all he gets in return are beatings.
Adriana, Luciana, and the Courtesan enter, with Pinch, a doctor. They see Antipholus beating Dromio and agree that he must be “mad.” Adriana asks Pinch to try to restore him to his senses, but when he approaches, Antipholus strikes him. Pinch starts to perform an exorcism on him using incantations. Antipholus insists he is not “mad.” Adriana expresses pity for him and wishes he’d stayed at home after dinner. Antipholus and Dromio protest that he did not dine at home because Adriana locked him out, which the crowd takes as further proof of Antipholus’s “madness.” At first, they think Dromio is just humoring him.
However, Adriana says she sent the money for Antipholus’s bail via Dromio, which Luciana corroborates. Dromio insists this didn’t happen: He was never instructed to collect a purse, only a rope. Pinch says that both Dromio and Antipholus are possessed, and must be locked up in the dark. Antipholus rages at Adriana, thinking she has set everything up to spite him. He threatens her physically and puts up a fight when Pinch’s assistants try to restrain him.
Antipholus calls for the Officer to help, as he is supposed to be in his charge. The Officer points out that if he releases Antipholus to another’s custody, the prisoner’s debt will be transferred onto him, so he can’t allow this. Adriana promises to pay off the debt immediately. Pinch and his assistants bind Antipholus and Dromio and carry them off to Adriana’s house.
Adriana asks who Antipholus owes money to; the Officer explains that he owes Angelo the goldsmith for a chain. Adriana remembers that she was promised a chain, which she never received. The Courtesan confirms that she has seen Antipholus with a chain, sticking to her story that he broke in and stole her ring. They resolve to track down Angelo to learn the truth.
Antipholus of Syracuse and Dromio of Syracuse enter with their swords drawn, in a state of fear. Adriana and company are alarmed that they have apparently broken free and are now wielding weapons. They flee. Antipholus and Dromio are relieved that swords seem an effective deterrent to the supernatural forces there. They resolve to get their things from the Centaur and leave on a ship as soon as possible.
Act IV Analysis
This is the longest Act in the play and is broken into the most scenes, with four instead of two. This structure supports the snowballing action as the plot approaches its hectic, comedic climax. The first two scenes open midway through conversations, adding pace and creating a frantic atmosphere. Scenes transition rapidly as characters rush on and offstage, creating chaos as the two sets of twins narrowly miss each other, leading to constant moments of mistaken identity, with ever greater consequences. Although the stakes are now high, Shakespeare ensures a comedic tone is maintained, both by the absurdities of the situations and through wordplay: For example, Dromio stresses urgency but then goes off on a comedic tangent of wordplay about time.
This fast action supports the play’s movement toward a denouement, as the two sets of twins become physically closer, almost existing in the same space at the same time, but not quite. The twins’ near-encounters reinforce the possibility of reuniting the family—the only solution to clear everything up. The play thus suggests that healing The Problem of Rifts in Interpersonal Relationships is a path to harmony and order.
As the physical rift of the family starts to narrow, other rifts are created or worsened, exposing the weaknesses of these interpersonal relationships. The rift between Antipholus and Adriana reaches a climax when Luciana tells Adriana that her husband has propositioned her. Though Adriana questions Luciana extensively and is shocked, she does not find this unbelievable, exposing the gulf between her and her husband. Shakespeare illustrates the consequences of a marital rift: Each spouse believes the worst of each other, as Adriana can readily believe that Antipholus would try to seduce her sister, while Antipholus, in turn, thinks Adriana is orchestrating everything out of cruelty.
Shakespeare juxtaposes Adriana and Antipholus’s fractured relationship with the relationship of the two sisters. Luciana has argued with Adriana over their ideas about marriage, and she also hints that she is drawn to Antipholus by suggesting she would be receptive to such advances in other circumstances. Despite this, the sisters are allies. They confide in each other honestly, and go out together to try to resolve the situation by settling accounts and dealing with Antipholus’s apparent “madness.” Adriana’s total faith in Luciana’s account is directly proportional to her distrust of her husband, creating a significant contrast between an interpersonal relationship built on respect and trust, and one that is built on jealousy and betrayal.
Immediately after learning of Antipholus’s apparent romantic betrayal, Adriana is also horrified to find out that he is apparently also in debt, reinforcing The Importance of Commerce and Wealth, as this financial betrayal is a serious issue. The situation is especially fraught because the debt seems to be for a material gesture of affection, the gold chain, which Adriana has not received. Antipholus’s financial behavior toward both Adriana and the Courtesan is significant in the breakdown of these relationships.
Many problems and misunderstandings in this Act largely relate to material goods or transactions. A chain of different objects and amounts of money are passed around or sent for, creating mishaps as the wrong one arrives with the wrong person: the ship versus the rope; the money for bail versus the money to buy a rope; and the chain, the ring, and the payment. Shakespeare uses the figures of the Officer and Pinch to show the serious consequences relating to these things, but also as a source of comedy, as these consequences, like the objects, are also rapidly transferred from person to person, to everyone’s surprise.
The comedy of this Act is thus largely centered upon misunderstandings and sudden reversals. The Officer suddenly moves from arresting Angelo to arresting Antipholus of Ephesus. Antipholus then suddenly finds his jailor shifting from the Officer to Pinch. Pinch’s character embodies the farcical tone of Act IV: He is presented as an absurd quack doctor who, like everyone else, completely misreads the situation while asserting great authority. His actions intensify the situation as he invokes supernatural forces, both creating humor and showing that the plot is reaching a climax. The recourse to the Officer reflects that events defy the legal and commercial framework the characters usually inhabit, but the involvement of Pinch suggests that the situation now defies the laws of nature and reason.
As the misunderstandings mount, the characters continue to grapple with The Nature of Identity. The characters all treat identity as a fundamental force that determines behavior. They find it unthinkable that Antipholus’s actions could differ so much from his perceived character: Initially, everyone thinks his bizarre behavior is a joke, and then they think he is “mad,” or that supernatural forces are at play. Antipholus of Syracuse and Antipholus of Ephesus react very differently to the strange behavior of those around them. Antipholus of Syracuse doubts his own sense of self, deciding that he may well be “mad,” whereas his twin determinedly asserts his own sanity. While their reactions partly relate to their different circumstances, they also show how different people respond to circumstances that challenge their perception of themselves.
Unlock all 55 pages of this Study Guide
Get in-depth, chapter-by-chapter summaries and analysis from our literary experts.
- Grasp challenging concepts with clear, comprehensive explanations
- Revisit key plot points and ideas without rereading the book
- Share impressive insights in classes and book clubs