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as through his antipode, Tamora, Shakespeare illustrates both the danger of basing one's identity excessively on emotion (or the lack thereof), and of allowing one's emotions to be influenced too strongly by external forces.

Shakespeare doesn't portray emotion as necessarily detrimental, however. In fact, at times even excessive emotion seems to work strongly in characters' favor, as in the case of those unfortunates caught up in The Comedy of Errors. As the plot unfolds, confusion abounds, to an absurd degree, over the identities of the two Antipholuses and Dromios. As the confusion builds, so does the agitation of the characters, as they are repeatedly mistaken for one another, harassed by those who think they know them, and even arrested, in the case of Ephesian Antipholus and Dromio. The overt frustration experienced by the four is evidenced by Syracusian Antipholus' beatings of his servant, Dromio, despite his earlier profession of an almost brotherly love for him. Here, even wild emotion proves to be fruitless and comical, rather than helpful.

It is only when the quartet reaches a breaking point at which they lose control of their emotions entirely, however, that they manage to break free of the cycle of errors and reach a state of understanding. Syracusian Antipholus and Dromio are the first to give in to their frustration, when they charge onto the scene and are mistaken by the officer, Luciana, and Adriana, and the courtezan for their recently-arrested Ephesian counterparts: "Luc. God for thy mercy! they are loose again. / Adr. And come with naked swords: let's call / more help to have them bound again" (Errors V.i.143-146). By giving in to unbridled emotion (in this case rage and indignation), Syracusian Antipholus and Dromio actually set in motion the chain of events that will culminate in the meeting with their family. Thus, by breaking free and working outside of the law, which embodies reason and the lack of emotion, the two are rewarded with the solution to their problems.

Titus Andronicus, too, suggests that allowing one's emotions to become all-consuming is not always entirely negative. From the outset of the play, Titus' undying loyalty and perfect Roman stoicism go unrewarded. In fact, it seems that he is penalized for his trouble; his loyalty and sense of civic duty render him blind to the corruption and treachery that surround him, and this ignorance and naivety result in his fall from grace, and the rape and maiming of his daughter.

Caught

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