A Book Review: Menaechmi

Titus Maccius Plautus was born in 254 B.C. at Sassina, Umbria, and lived until 184 B.C. Many modern writers refer to his as "Plautus," his nickname that means "flatfoot" in Umbrian. Before becoming a playwright, Plautus worked as a carpenter for Roman stages but. Soon afterwards, he set up a business for himself, which went bankrupt. While working for a baker, he managed to sell his first play and start a career in writing plays for forty years. Most of Plautus' plays had Greek characters, names, and scenery, but the customs and traditions in his plays were Roman. Menaechmitwenty-one of his plays survive today, each play was original and attracted even the most uneducated people., or The Twin Brothers, is probably the best-known work of Plautus, because it was translated into English at an earlier date than any of his other work. Shakespeare took the plot for his play, Comedy of Errors from this Menaechmi. Although only

The play Menaechmi is the story about two twins being separated from each other at the age of seven. When the two twins were born, one of them was called Menaechmus and the other was called Sosicles. Both of the twins played with each other as they grew up, until one day when their father decided to take Menaechmus to a market in Tarentum. When they arrived at the market, Menaechmus got separated from his father. A rich merchant from the town of Epidamnus saw Menaechmus found the kid and adopted him. The remaining twin was now alone, and when Sosicles grandfather heard about the bad news, he change Sosicles name to Menaechmus [II]. Now both the twins had the same name making life very confusing. When Menaechmus II was old enough to travel on his own, he set out on a six year journey to find his long lost brother.

After many years of searching, Menaechmus [II] landed in the town of Epidamnus where his lost twin was living. Because both twins looked alike, many of the local people mistook Menaechmus II as being Menaechmus I. Because Menaechmus I never told anyone of his long lost twin, no one knew that they were in fact mixing up two entirely different people. Because earlier in the day Menaechmus I invited himself to his girlfriend's house for dinner, his girl friends slave was at the market shopping for food thought that Menaechmus II was Menaechmus I and told him to come for diner as food was almost ready. Menaechmus II was quite confused and did not know how people knew who he was when he just arrived at the town. Menaechmus II was then persuaded into going inside the house, and ate a large meal. This caused problems for Menaechmus I's friend who was going to eat dinner with Menaechmus I. When his friend saw Menaechmus II leave Menaechmus I's girlfriend's house, he thought that he had been betrayed and cheated out of a meal, but in all actuality, Menaechmus I had not even come for dinner either. This also caused problems with Menaechmus I's wife as Menaechmus I's friend told his wife that he was eating with his girl friend instead of with her. In the end, everyone thought Menaechmus I was crazy including his girl friend and his father-in-law. Luckily for them, Menaechmus II's slave was smart enough to figure out that Menaechmus I and Menaechmus II were twins and that they had found each other.

The play, Menaechmi by Plautus is a very interesting story as it talks about the struggle two twins faced in trying to find one another after being separated. The plot of the story is quite funny and is full of coincidences. The play appeals to a broad audience of people whether they are educated or not. This was probably one of Plautus' biggest challegene, for at the time it was written, not everyone was rich enough to be able ot afford a good education. The characters in the play were quite unique. Each character with the exception of the two twind brother had their own personality. For example, Menachamus I's friend loved to eat. He would specifically got to Menachemus's house just because he would throw some of the best feasts. Menachemus' wife was completely different from his girlfriends. As with most relationships in the town of Epidimus, Menaechmus was not attracted to his wif en the sae waay as he was with his girlfriend. Throughout the play, Menaechmuns was argueing with his wafe and so the audience of the play was to acssume that they always argued that way. While Menaechumu's girlfriend was the complete opposite. Throughout the play, she acted like this sweet little woman who listened to everything that Meneachmu;s said to her.

Menechumus I seemed to be a person who wanted to be in control in the house, that is why he probably like his girlfriend more than he did him wife. His wife was more controlling and demanding of Menechumus, while his girlfriend was not. Menachumus I and Menechumus II were similar in many ways. Both of the had a shot temper and did not like to be called crazy.

Bibliography:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plautus

http://www.theatredatabase.com/ancient/plautus_001.html