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Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare
Antony and Cleopatra is a play in which the balance of power swings
interestingly between two lovers. It is set in the First Century BC
between Rome and Egypt. Antony is one of the three members of the
second triumvirate who jointly rule the Roman Empire. Antony is the
eponymous tragic hero, who allows his love for Cleopatra to cloud his
judgement. According to Aristotle this is hamartia, an error of
judgment caused by fate. This leads to his downfall. Cleopatra is the
Queen of Egypt; she is a very clever yet volatile lady. We follow
their relationship and changes in power between them throughout the
play in chronological order. The great feeling of love between the two
characters allows the play to have unexpected twists. Culminating in
both their suicides, unusually Cleopatra lives on past Antony's death.
We can easily see the balance of power shift throughout the play,
between Antony and Cleopatra.
From the opening of the play we see the imbalance of power between the
two as in Act one Scene one which is framed by disapproval as two
offices lament the change that has came over their leader; "And is
become the bellows and the fan/ To cool a gipsy's lust". This is a
typical Roman view of Antony being subservient to Cleopatra, given to
us from Philo a Roman soldier based in Egypt. The soldier also states
from what a great height Antony has fallen; "The triple pillar of the
world transform'd / Into a strumpet's fool." These two passages show
us that even from the beginning the audience is made aware of
Cleopatra's effect on Antony. The language Philo uses shows how he
feel as "strumpe...
... middle of paper ...
...eath. "Not Caesars
valour hath oer'thrown Antony,/But Antony's hath triumph'd on itself."
Cleopatra changes her tone considerably after Antony's death. She
becomes very subdued and dignified which leads to a restrained end to
a tempestuous scene.
Cleopatra ends the play in Act five with all the power, as Antony is
dead and she still has the final scene to herself which is very
unusual as a female character is never given the final scene. She has
achieved power over Antony in his life and his death proving she is a
domineering and ingenious woman, much to the Romans disapproval.
In conclusion, Shakespeare's handling of the balance of power is
wonderfully documented through the plot of the play and through his
use of language. The lifestyle enjoyed by Antony and Cleopatra is
shown through the hyperbolical poetry.
The Senate of the Roman Republic are the ruling power over most of the known world. Yet this powerful and influential senate is easily threatened by one man; Julius Caesar. To the senators Caesar is the catalyst for the downfall of a Republic they had worked so hard to create and protect. The playwright William Shakespeare dives into this world of betrayal and ambition with his play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. Using his voice as a writer he takes the audience into Rome and lets them experience each riveting moment of Caesar’s fall. The play shows that Caesar is not the cause of Rome’s eventual downfall, but the senators who conspire against him and ultimately kill him are the ones reprehensible. Shakespeare introduces the characters of Brutus and Cassius: two men, both of high standing, that spearhead the conspiracy against Caesar’s life. The actions of their scheme are met with chaotic consequences, consequences so dangerous that both Brutus and Cassius flee to Asia Minor. After the Battle of Phillippi, once Octavius and Marc Antony seem to have one, the two men take their lives. This final action sends them back to a world with Caesar, a world they tried so hard to escape. At the end of both Caesar and Brutus’ lives become enlightened to a truth they had so eagerly avoided. For Caesar that truth is his over confidence in his ideals and his ignorance to the warning signs so often shown to him. Caesar’s downfall and untimely understanding makes him a tragic hero.
In the fair city of Verona, two rival families, the Montagues and Capulets were involved in a nasty family feud that goes back years before any of the members were born. Even the townspeople were involved in the dispute, because the families were always fighting in the streets and causing disturbances. They disrupted the streets of Verona and even Prince Escalus tried to break up the fighting. They were given a warning, by him that another public fight would result in death. While this was occurring, Romeo, (a Montague) the main character, was getting over his last love, Rosaline, and was very upset. Juliet of the Capulet household had just been introduced to a wealthy young man, Paris, whom her parents wished her to marry. Yet she did not love him. Romeo goes to a party in an effort to forget about Rosaline. At this party he met Juliet, and immediately fell in love with her. He later finds out that she is a Capulet, the rival family of the Montagues. He decides that he loves her anyway and they confess their love for each other during the very famous "balcony scene" in which they agreed to secretly marry the next day. Friar Lawrence agreed to marry them in an effort to end the feuding between the families. Unfortunately, the fighting gets worse and Mercutio (Montague) a good friend of Romeo ends up in a fight with Tybalt (Capulet), Juliet's cousin. Tybalt killed Mercutio, which caused Romeo to kill Tybalt in an angry rage. For this, Romeo is banished from Verona. At the same time, the Capulet's were planning Juliet's marriage to Paris. Juliet didn't want to marry this man so she arranges with Friar Lawrence to fake her own death with a sleeping potion that would make everyone think that she was dead. Friar Lawrence promised to send word to Romeo to meet her when the potion wears off and to rescue her to Mantua, where Romeo was currently staying. There they would live happily ever after. Unfortunately, Romeo didn't receive the message on time and upon hearing of her "death" went to Juliet's tomb where he drinks poison and dies. When Juliet's potion wears off, she wakes to find her lover's dead corpse. She then proceeds to stab herself with Romeo's dagger. The two families find the bodies and with their shared sorrow, finally make peace with each other.
Fate or choice? Choice or fate? How does one separate these ideals? Can one? Shakespeare could not. Nor can we. Fate and choice are so intertwined that our choices determine our fate, and our fate determines our choices. William Shakespeare trusts the audience to scrutinize whether it is fate or choice that rules our human life. Shakespeare aptly conveys this oxymoron (with which people have been dealing for ages) through the evidence and structure of his play, Romeo and Juliet.
The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare is an intimate portrayal of the famed assassination of Julius Caesar and the complex inner workings of the men who committed the crime. In one particularly revealing scene, two of the men closest to Caesar, one a conspirator in his murder and one his second-in command, give orations for the deceased. Despite being simple in appearance, these two speeches do much of the work in developing and exposing the two characters in question. Though both have a love for Caesar, Mark Antony's is mixed with a selfish desire for power, while Brutus' is pure in nature, brought to a screeching halt by his overpowering stoicism. These starkly-contrasted personalities influence the whole of the play, leading to its tragic-but-inevitable end.
should do now. He says, "Is it e'en so? Then I defy you, stars!" Romeo
Throughout the entirety of Romeo & Juliet, Shakespeare is hinting at the “star crossed” deadly fate of the lovers spoken of by the chorus in the prologue. Romeo and Juliet are also constantly mentioning their uneasy feelings and how they can sense that something bad will happen, which confirm the aforementioned conclusion. This foreshadowing not only tells us this tragedy planned, but there must be pawns of fate that have to drive Romeo and Juliet together, while at the same time leading them to their death. In Romeo and Juliet, their deadly destiny was written by the universe and characters along the way, such as Capulet, Montague, Nurse, Friar Lawrence, Friar John, and Mercutio.
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare Many people consider a tragedy to be a play or story, which includes an element of death and disaster, the play Romeo and Juliet fits into this category. With their fate already mapped out, Shakespeare ends the secret love affair of Romeo and Juliet with their deaths. The tragedy has a didactic purpose; Shakespeare wants the audience to learn how to avoid making the same mistakes as the characters. Shakespeare cleverly begins the play with a prologue, which sets the scene for the rest of the play. The prologue tells us about an “ancient grudge” between two families and how only the deaths of “star-crossed lovers”, one from each enemy, could end the feud.
William Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra While Mark Antony is a great general, one of the three triumvant, it
During the first part of the play, Shakespeare introduces the characters and the situations. He makes us notice how powerful everyone is. Throughout the different meetings and the dialogues we can feel the power of the personalities of some characters, which in the nearly future is going to make a difference. The rulers of Rome have so much power that they can control the freedom of the people as we can see when Caesar gave an order to Antony. "I shall remember. When Caesar says do this, it is performed" (1.2.12-13). Although this abuse of power made the conspirators act against him, Caesar did not have absolute power and in some situations Calpurnia, his wife, had control in him
In The Tragedy of Julius Caesar , he reveals his historical influences by incorporating aspects of Roman Society, such as the plebeians struggle against Roman hierarchy. Additionally, Shakespeare formulated the play’s main conflict around Caesar and his ambition, which can be attributed to the cause of man’s demise, and he based Caesar’s character after the actual Caesar motivations and conquests. He also reflects English society by including parallels between Queen Elizabeth I and Julius Caesar. Lastly, through the play’s conflict, he conveys his political views on civil war and expresses his concern for the fate of England’s government. Most importantly, Shakespeare demonstrates how age-old stories, such as the betrayal of Julius Caesar, can be applied to current society. By understanding Shakespeare's motivations and influences, readers are not only able to glimpse into the age of Roman Empire, but also, they are able to understand the political turmoil in England during Shakespeare's
The play of ‘Antony and Cleopatra’ was written in 1606, and is mainly set in their respective worlds of Rome and Egypt. ‘Antony and Cleopatra,’ like Shakespeare’s other plays was written to be performed on the Jacobean Stage. In Shakespeare’s time there was a lack of scenery and stage props, but he compensated with his use of language that he gave to the audience, to assist them, bring to life the characters, plot and the setting in their own minds.
Before the audience meets Antony, Shakespeare presents us with two soldiers discussing Antony’s current debauched life. This is dramatically effective staging because they are acting as a Greek chorus; relaying to the audience the general feeling in Rome and making us privy to feelings of irritation that Antony is unaware of. Philo tells us scathingly that “this dotage of our general’s/O’erflows the measure.” The use of the word “general” in the first line immediately tells us that Antony is a man of great rank. Quickly following this, he tells us that Antony “glowed like plated Mars” on the battlefield. This immediately raises his status to that of a god of war. This allows the audience to recognise Antony as a man who has gone into decline; he was not always a pleasure seeking man. Rank and stature are important aspects of the tragic hero; Aristotle believed that a tragic hero has to be a man of noble stature because it will emphasise the extent of his downfall, making it much more tragic.
Although the political struggles in Antony and Cleopatra are often treated as backdrops to the supposedly more engaging love affair between the two title characters, these struggles permeate the entire play, and give the love story its heightened sense of importance and tragedy. The relationship between Antony and Cleopatra would not have attained its renown and immortality had they not had been extremely powerful and public figures. The conflict between public duty and personal desire is the underlying theme of the play, and how the characters respond to this conflict is what imbues the play with suspense and interest. This conflict is most clearly seen in Antony who is caught between his role as a triumvir of Rome and his love for the Egyptian Queen. By allowing his all-consuming passion to overwhelm his sense of responsibility, he loses his half of the empire to Octavian. Octavian, on the other hand, consistently places the interests of the state before his own. Although he is calculating, shrewd, and unscrupulous, all of his thoughts are devoted to the ruling of Rome; politics is his one interest, and power his only obsession. Cleopatra as ruler is often treated secondarily to Cleopatra as seductress and lover. While most of the obvious power struggle is between Antony and Octavian, one cannot ignore Cleopatra's involvement. Throughout the play, and particularly at the end, she demonstrates an acute political awareness as she does her utmost to secure what is best for Egypt. In a play with three powerful figures it is expected that political motivations be never far from the foreground or from the characters' minds.
Antony is generally highly regarded and his status as a tragic hero is elevated through others’ accounts of him, as well as through poetic nature of the characters’ speech, despite the reckless impression we get of him. For example, Enobarbus remarked that he is “nobler than my result is infamous”. Additionally, Philo’s initial dialogue concerning Antony in Act 1.1.1-9 speaks highly of him: “Those his godly eyes,/That o’er the files and musters of the war/Have glowed like plated Mars, now bend, now turn/The office and devotion of their view/Upon a tawny front.” Similarly, Cleopatra exclaims “his legs bestrid the ocean; his reared arm Crested the world”. This poetic image summarizes her positive view of Antony, by speaking about him in such cosmic proportions, therefore strengthening Antony’s stature. Furthermore, despite Caesar being portrayed as an all round better leader than Antony, even he has admiration for Antony, as demonstrated in Act 1.4.69-72.
One of the biggest internal struggles in Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra is Antony’s struggle between reason and emotion. One of the times this is shown is when Antony turns his ships around after noting that Cleopatra has done so in Act III scene 10. Shakespeare decided to show Antony’s internal struggle by having him follow Cleopatra to emphasize how strongly his emotions and reasoning lead him to mix business with pleasure, intertwining his role of general with his role of lover. From turning his ship around mid-battle to dressing himself after spending the night to outright stating his feelings, Antony shows over and over the unavoidable mutual existence of his roles as general and lover.