Abstract: This essay explores how The Comedy of Errors dramatizes the destabilizing effects of the market economy on domestic life and gender roles. It argues that the play presents market-driven spontaneity as a disruptive force that threatens the routines and rituals essential to both familial and communal stability. Rather than merely curbing male autonomy, the play reshapes female identity by subtly coercing women into an idealized gender role that suppresses their personal desires and interests. Ultimately, this transformation culminates in the gossips' feast, which restores familial and social unity by reconciling the regularity of domestic life with the spontaneity of the marketplace.
Huey-Ling Lee (Sun,) studied this question.