Adriana: A Wife Who Asks Difficult Questions
First appears: Act 2, Scene 1
Adriana is the most emotionally substantial character in a play primarily concerned with physical confusion. Her anxieties about her husband's fidelity are not groundless: he really is spending time with a courtesan, quite apart from the twin confusion.
Her speech in Act 2 about marriage's bond ('a wretched soul, bruised with adversity') is strikingly different in tone from the farce happening around it. She feels things more seriously than the play's comic structure can quite contain.
She is contrasted with her sister Luciana, who counsels patience and wifely submission. Adriana cannot manage either, and Shakespeare seems to understand why.
Key Scenes
Famous Quotes
“A wretched soul, bruised with adversity, We bid be quiet when we hear it cry;”
Adriana — Act 2, Scene 1
Themes
Other Characters in The Comedy of Errors
Test Your Knowledge
Think you know your Shakespeare? Put it to the test with one of our free quizzes.
See all quizzes →