Plautus
Through his plays, Plautus not only provides a medium of entertainment through his
comedic writing, but he also takes real life aspects and ideas seen in Ancient Rome during
this time and incorporates them masterfully into his writing. Though the plots of the plays
are far from similar, a lot of them share the same underlying theme(s). The plays are also
linked together by Plautus’ use of stock characters which are characters that differ in name
but share similar characteristics. As mentioned earlier, Plautus uses on going situations
seen in the Roman society during his time and uses them not to only provide a form of
entertainment but to also show his criticism of the society in which he lives. Another
common feature in his plays is that of slavery, and the role it holds in the various plays and
the slaves’ relationships with their master.
Plautus uses the idea of social hierarchy to represent the characters and their placement on
this hierarchy isn’t really indicative of their worth or how the society sees them. For
example, in The Swaggering Solider, Pyrgopolynices who is a well-known and heroic
soldier and regarded highly in his society, but he is far from a good human being. He is a
very conceited man and views women as nothing but sexual objects. Whereas in the same
play, Palestrio, a slave, is someone who would be viewed as being on the lower end of the
social ladder, but his loyalty to his master and his willingness to help him shows his real
worth. The same idea is also present in the play Pseudolus. Plautus once again shows the
readers a slave who goes through great lengths to help his troubling master. Pseudolus
manages to cunningly trick Ballio, a pimp and a rich man, and therefore getting his maters
the girl he loves.
Plautus use of stock characters is something that differentiated him from other playwrights
in his time. He doesn’t hesitate to put some of his main characters in embarrassing
situation caused by their own personal vices. In The Pot of Gold, Euclio is nearly driven to
madness by his obsession of his gold and his overall greediness. This idea can also be seen
at the end of The Swaggering Soldier when Pyrgopolynices is beaten for being involved
with another man’s wife. His objectification of women has finally caught up to him leading
him to be faced in an awkward and painful predicament. Another stock character that
