Getting to Know "The Rope"

The Rope, also known as, The Rudens, was written by Plautus roughly to be thought written around 211 BC. The play is a comedy that Plautus adapted based on a Greek Comedy by Diphilus. The Rope is known as one of Plautus's most famous plays. The play is similar to that of Shakespeare's The Tempest, in that some of the cast of characters has been shipwrecked on the African coast near Cyrene to be reunited with those from their past.

The play's action consists of plot twists, mistaken identity, and blossoming romance. The underlying theme kicks off right at the beginning of the play that good will conquer and those that are evil in life will be punished. The prologue is said by the god, Arcturus who looks to punish Labrax and states that he will cause the storm that kicks off the entire play. Labrax is a pimp that has some of his women with him on the ship. The women are trying very hard to get away from him and seek refuge in a nearby temple of Venus. The play continues on with some fallling in love, a reunion of a long lost father and daughter, and the freeing of the women. So in the end, like all comedies there is a happy ending that consists of love and freedom. 

Sources:

"Rudens"  The Concise Oxford Companion to Classical Literature. Ed. M.C. Howatson and Ian Chilvers. Oxford University Press, 1996. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press.  Central Washington University.  31 October 2010  http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t9.e2542

"The Rope" The Complete Roman Drama: All the Extant Comedies of Plautus and Terence, and The Tragedies of Seneca, in a Variety of Translations, Vol 1. George E. Duckworth Associate Professor of Classics, Princeton University. Random House, 1967. 31 October 2010