Summary
Act Five, Scene One
Angelo and the Second Merchant are walking together when they see Antipholus of Syracuse wearing the necklace. Angelo approaches Antipholus, calls him a liar, and demands to be paid. Antipholus challenges Angelo to a duel, but they are interrupted by the arrival of Adriana. She tells Angelo to hold back and tells him that Antipholus is mad. Dromio urges his master to run before they get caught and bound, at which point they run into the priory, where the Abbess lives.
The Abbess emerges and inquires about the large throng of people. Adriana tells her that Antipholus has become mad. She then tells the Abbess that she thinks Antipholus is also looking at other women, to which the Abbess replies that Adriana should have rebuked him more often. Adriana then demands that she be allowed to fetch her husband, but the Abbess will not let anyone enter her home, nor will she send her own servants to get the two men.
Adriana and Luciana are upset about being treated so badly by the Abbess and decide to plead their case to the Duke. The Duke then arrives with Egeon and the executioner. Adriana falls to her knees and tells him what has happened to her husband, after which the Duke calls for the Abbess to be brought forward.
Antipholus of Ephesus and his Dromio arrive in a rage, and Antipholus demands that the Duke grant him revenge on Adriana for the way she has treated him. Egeon recognizes his son but does not yet say anything to the Duke. Antipholus meanwhile tells the Duke everything that has happened to him that day, and provides several witnesses to prove his story. The Duke then calls for the Abbess again.
Egeon tries to get Antipholus of Ephesus to recognize him, but his son no longer knows his father. The Abbess arrives with both Antipholus of Syracuse and his servant Dromio, both of whom immediately recognize Egeon and call out to him. The Abbess then reveals that she is Emilia, Egeon's wife who was separated from him when their ship broke apart on the rocks. Soon the entire story is revealed to the Duke, who then pardons Egeon.
Everyone leaves the stage and enters the priory, except for the twins who stay. The brothers Antipholus rejoice and exit the stage, at which point the two Dromios try to figure out which one of them should enter the priory first, since the senior twin normally would take precedence. They decide that since, "we came into he world like brother and brother ...now let's go hand in hand, not one before another."
Analysis
Act Five is the final act of the play, and as such it features two major conclusory conventions of early modern comedies: first, Act Five consists of bringing all the major characters on stage at the same time: the Antipholus brothers, the Dromio brothers, Egeon, the Duke, Adriana, Luciana, and Emilia (the abbess) all find themselves in the same place. This is especially significant for this particular comedy, in which isolation and separation have played a large part in developing confusion around mistaken identities. Throughout the play, the Antipholus brothers and the Dromio brothers have never been in the same place at once, a phenomenon that has driven the plot as other characters keep mistaking them for one another. Now, as the play concludes, not only are the brothers (and their identical appearances) laid bare for the other characters in the play, but the image of all the characters on stage replicates the image of the original family described in Act One. Thus, before any of the plot is actually resolved, the audience receives a visual representation of resolution and reunion through the mere fact that everyone is in the same place at the same time.
The second comic convention on which the play relies is the simultaneous resolution of multiple plots. This is especially evident in the last-minute appearance of the abbess, who turns out to be Emilia, Egeon's lost wife. When Antipholus and Dromio seek refuge in the priory, their choice introduces the audience to the abbess, who starts to play more than a peripheral role as she also instructs Adriana how best to deal with her unfaithful and suspicious husband. When it is revealed that the abbess is actually Emilia, her involvement in the final moments of the play makes sense: she has already begun integrating herself back into her family before even she understands who they are. Thus, despite the play's satirical take on the presence of the supernatural or divine intervention, its ending does suggest that this final resolution was always, to some degree, fated. This notion is compounded by the fact that the Dromio twins exit the stage together, explaining that they came into the world at the same time: ultimately, the play's focus on family, twinning, and identity showcases how familial and brotherly bonds are not easily broken and are indeed destined to come together once more.
