Structural Syntax & Grammar
In the Abbess’s line, *"Thirty-three years have I but gone in travail,"* Shakespeare flips standard word order by placing the verb before the subject ("have I"). This grammatical technique is known by this term.
What is **inversion**
When the Abbess describes Adriana’s nagging as *"The venom clamours of a jealous woman,"* she uses this figure of speech to compare jealousy to poison directly without using "like" or "as."
What is a **metaphor**?
Throughout Scene 1, characters constantly confuse the gold chain and the money pouch, playing on the word *"bond,"* which refers to both a physical tie and this legal or financial obligation.
What is a **financial/contractual agreement**?
The audience knows there are two sets of twins on stage while the Duke and Adriana remain baffled. This is the primary type of irony driving the scene.
What is **dramatic irony
In the line "The venom vomit of a jealous woman," the deliberate repetition of the initial consonant sound "v" creates an aggressive tone. This sound device is known as this.
What is alliteration?
When Luciana addresses the Abbess using *"thou"* and *"thee"* instead of *"you"*, she is utilizing this form of address, which signifies intimacy, lower status, or emotional intensity.
What is the **informal (or intimate) second-person pronoun**
In describing how jealousy prevents rest, the Abbess claims *"The venomous clamour... poisons sleep."* Assigning the human ability to kill or infect to a non-physical sound is an example of this figure.
What is **personification**?
When Dromio refers to being beaten and calls his bruises *"marks,"* he plays on the dual meaning of physical scars and this unit of currency.
What is a **mark** (the coin)?
Adriana goes to the Abbess to seek a cure for her "mad" husband, only for the Abbess to diagnose *Adriana's* nagging as the cause. This outcome represents this type of irony.
What is **situational irony**?
When the Abbess lists Adriana’s continuous complaints—"In bed... at board... in company"—she repeats the same prepositional structure at the start of parallel phrases. High school rhetoric identifies this repetition as this device.
What is anaphora?
In Antipholus of Syracuse's plea to the Abbess, *"Be pleased to give us pay for our travail,"* the word *"be"* functions not as an indicative verb, but in this grammatical mood used to express requests or commands.
What is the **imperative mood**?
The Abbess states that Adriana's constant scolding kept Antipholus awake, calling sleep *"the nurse and breeder of all good."* This extended metaphor compares sleep to this type of maternal figure.
What is a **nurturer** (or **caregiver/mother**)?
When Egeon refers to his age and sorrow using the term *"grief,"* Shakespeare plays on its dual historical meaning of emotional sadness and this physical sensation.
What is **physical pain** (or **bodily hardship**)?
Egeon believes his son Antipholus is ignoring him out of cruelty (*"Not know my voice!"*), when in reality he is speaking to the wrong twin. This breakdown of recognition is an example of this literary condition.
What is **tragicomic irony** (or **mistaken identity**)?
The harsh, unpleasant hiss of sibilant "s" sounds in the description of Adriana’s scolding ("She said still... sleep-deprived") evokes a snake-like quality through this specific acoustic effect.
What is cacophony (or sibilance)?
In Adriana’s speech complaining to the Abbess (*"His company must do his drawbacks grace..."*), Shakespeare often uses this grammatical shift where a noun or adjective functions as a verb without changing its form.
What is **conversion** (or **anthimeria**)?
When Antipholus of Ephesus describes his wife's lock-out of him as being treated like a *"beast"*, and compares the door to a barrier of iron, he employs this device that highlights contrast through explicit comparison.
What is a **simile**?
When Antipholus demands his *"freedom"* from the Priory, the Abbess uses the word to mean spiritual sanctuary, while Antipholus uses it to mean this physical state.
What is **release from physical restraint/confinement**?
The Abbess tricking Adriana into admitting her own fault by getting her to agree with her step-by-step is an example of this classical rhetorical method of questioning.
What is the **Socratic method** (or **Socratic irony**)?
When Luciana tries to persuade the Abbess using logical arguments about familial duty rather than emotional outbursts, she relies on this Aristotelian rhetorical appeal.
What is logos?
In Duke Solinus’s legal declarations, clauses like *"If that I be the same that I was made"* use "that" as a redundant conjunction attached to "if." This Early Modern English construction is called this.
What is a **pleonastic conjunction** (or **conjunctional suffix**)?
When the Abbess refers to the resolution of the twin confusion as a long, delayed labor, saying *"Thirty-three years have I but gone in travail... and this present hour / My heavy burdens are delivered,"* she employs this overarching figurative device.
What is an **extended metaphor** (or **allegory of childbirth/rebirth**)?
The resolution of the play rests on the word *"error,"* which derives from the Latin *errare*, meaning both to make a mistake and to do this physical action.
What is **to wander** (or **to stray**)?
When the Abbess reveals herself as Emilia, Egeon's long-lost wife, the legal execution setting transforms into a family reunion—a device Aristotle called this sudden reversal of fortune.
What is **peripeteia**?
In the Duke's final decree, "Justice most sacred, supreme, and severe," the rhythmic arrangement of three balanced words or clauses in quick succession forms this rhetorical structure.
What is a tricolon (or rule of three)?