In The Comedy of Errors, Adriana is the wife of Antipholus of Ephesus.
Adriana is central to the play’s confusion. When the Syracusan Antipholus arrives in Ephesus, Adriana mistakes him for her husband because the two Antipholuses are identical twins separated in childhood. Her anxiety grows when “her” husband appears to deny knowing her, creating the play’s comic chain of mistaken identity.
Adriana’s sister is Luciana, who is romantically pursued by Antipholus of Syracuse. This relationship is a common source of mix-ups: Luciana is not Antipholus of Ephesus’s wife, although she is closely connected to Adriana. Emilia, the Abbess, is instead the long-lost wife of Aegeon and mother of the twin Antipholuses.
The play’s plot ultimately resolves when the twin brothers and their servants are reunited. Adriana discovers that many apparent insults and betrayals were caused by the mistaken identities rather than by her husband’s deliberate actions.