IDENTITY, TWINS AND DROPS OF WATER. Last week, we went to hear—and see—a staged reading of THE COMEDY OF ERRORS directed by Ruth Anne Baumgartner. It was very well done. This week I have been thinking about two speeches in particular. The first is a speech by Antipholus, one of two sets of twins who were separated by a storm at sea when they were young. Antipholus has been searching for his lost brother. Here is the speech:
“I to the world am like a drop of water
That in the ocean seeks another drop,
Who, falling there to find his fellow forth,
Unseen, inquisitive, confounds himself:
So I, to find a mother and a brother,
In quest of them, unhappy, lose myself.” (I, ii, 33-40)
I recognize the image of two drops of water merging into a single drop, but the idea of twins merging identities does not fit with my experience of being a twin.
On the other hand, I am very much moved by the last two lines of the play:
“We came into the world like brother and brother;
And now let’s go hand in hand, not one before another.” (V, i,425-426)