Introduction
Shakespeare’s plays are commonly with the illusion and deception inherent in the medium of theatre itself, from plays-within-plays to the complications arising from a boy actor playing a girl dressed up as a boy, and by analogy. The theatre then become the world and states of altered reality was the regular element of Shakespeare’s plays. They may be minor alterations, such as those induced by love (Antony in Anthony and Cleopatra). They may be expressed in other-worldly spirits, be they a Puck or an Ariel, they may be symbolic – dreams, sleep, the moon, or the contrast between the wilderness or the wood and the urban city or court. They may depict major alterations of behavior, such as madness, real or feigned.
Discussion
Anthony and Cleopatra
‘Anthony and Cleopatra’ is a Shakespearian play about two lovers; Anthony, a leader of Rome and Cleopatra, the Queen Of Egypt. The main themes of the play are love and duty as well as betrayal and guilt, the play is written in old English and mainly everyday language. Numerous characters including Enobarbus and Cleopatra, commit betrayal in the play, much imagery is used including the symbolism of God, nature, and water to present its themes, Enobarbus is a loyal friend of Anthony’s until he realizes that Anthony is an unreliable leader, at which point he deserts him, to go to Ceasar. Enobarbus is so overwhelmed with guilt that he takes his own life. The imagery and use of figurative language in his suicide shows his deep feelings of regret.
The play effectively presents the issue of betrayal and guilt by using imagery and showing the extreme effects it can have, Guilt can overwhelm a person so much that they can simply not live with themselves and it shows that cleopetra must have had a lot of love for Anthony, the two lovers and their love, or lack there of, between them. It would be correct to add though that Cleopatra is the dominating presence in the play, however, Cleopatra, Antony and Enobarbus have tragic elements of grandeur, nobility, fateful misjudgments and a fall from the heights as well as other less important qualities. (Shakespeare 157)
The play is repeatedly of different kinds and categories of a drama, Cleopatra tells Antony that, if he truly loves her, he should tell her how much he loves her. Antony responds by telling Cleopatra that professed love has very little value. Antony’s negligent behavior costs him dearly back in Rome.The irony of this situation is that Antony has neglected his soldierly duties for Rome due to the fact that he arrived in Egypt and fell in love with Cleopatra. This is a remarkable beginning to the play because it indicates that, although Antony and Cleopatra are lovers, they either do not actually love each other, or they are too doubtful to declare their love to one another.
Cleopatra as a symbol of Women
The way the audience in Elizabethan times would have viewed her hitting the messenger would also have been very different to ours. To the Elizabethan audience a woman hitting a messenger especially a male messenger would have been outrageous behavior but in our day and age we still see this is unacceptable but it doesn’t really shock us very much. After this incident, Cleopatra was full of guilt that she could not live with herself. This imagery uses nature to symbolize her feelings of wanting to escape her pain and guilt by death, Cleopatra ends up killing herself by making an asp bite her on the breast.
Cleopatra has this same fate after her betrayal, she is also against Anthony. This terrible act of betrayal leads to Anthony’s suicide; as he could not live without Cleopatra, she sends a message saying that she was dead, after being annoyed that he accused her of betrayal, ‘go tell him I have slain myself’. The way that we as modern readers respond to the character of Cleopatra is very different than the way the Elizabethan audience would have responded because although there had been a woman on the throne, they still were shocked by women with power and rights. We do not view her as harshly as Elizabethans because we are now used to women with power, and now that more and more women are getting powerful jobs they now have equal status as men. (Shakespeare 189)
Cleopatra in her “Infinite Variety” Manifests Essential Femininity
The characters of Antony and Cleopatra seem rather childish at times and yet they are older than the characters of Romeo and Juliet. Antony and Cleopatra loved each other however it did not seem in the way that one thinks of as one would in a traditional notion of love. She can act as if a child one minute, and a temptress the next. Before Antony killed himself Cleopatra lied about her death because she did not want to face an upset Antony. Enobarbus says of her that “the age cannot wither her, nor custom stale/ Her Infinite Variety, other women cloy/ the appetites they feed; but she makes hungry/ where most she satisfies” (Shakespeare 199).
Cleopatra is dramatic in her emotions, and is often very theatrical in her reactions and in her rule, her childish actions and deception are what creates the precondition for Antony’s suicide and eventually her own.
Enobarbus is like the rest of the Romans believe Cleopatra is a temptress and is making Antony disregard his duties in the scene on the barge, however, not everyone in the play views Cleopatra as a manipulative woman, one of the most famous lines which is used to describe Cleopatra is spoken by Enobarbus when he says ‘Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety'(Shakespeare 215).
This in my opinion shows that even though Enobarbus knows Cleopatra is taking Antony away from his duties he recognizes why Antony feels so strongly towards her and can also sympathize with this, Enobarbus describes her in a very different way to that which we would think that he views her. He uses words to describe her like ‘love-sick’ and ‘amorous’, and even goes so far as to compare her to the goddess ‘Venus’. I think here that Shakespeare isn’t making her out to be either tragic heroine or ‘triple- turned whore’ but more of a temptress than anything else, to lots of people including Caesar and Enobarbus Cleopatra is very intriguing (Shakespeare 215).
Analysis of Marc Antony
We see also the way Antony treats Cleopatra and the way he feels towards her change throughout the course of the play. The ultimate sacrifice that Cleopatra makes for Antony is at the end of the play when she doesn’t join Caesar, but instead kills herself to be with her true love, but we have to think is this to be with Antony or to escape humiliation? From the start when he considers her almost as a thing for him to entertain him when he is away from home through until he sees her not only as a mistress but also as someone whom he loves. At all points throughout the play, like the way she goes into battle just to see Antony, how she forgives him when he is dying, how she doesn’t really respect him or his obligation to duty. All show us that the character of Cleopatra is portrayed to the audience as not always good, even when he is away for a short period of time she misses him greatly. By the end of the play we can see that she genuinely cares for Antony and can’t live without him. (Shakespeare 233)
Marc Antony – Self-Deluded Lover
There are times throughout the play when Antony does think that she isn’t treating him well and in one instance calls her a ‘foul Egyptian’, then later on, he refers to her as ‘triple-turned whore’ although this is when Antony is at his lowest so there is question whether he really meant it. Romans see Cleopatra as a temptress who is taking away their leader and they know this will lead to the downfall of their army, however in this instance I felt that Cleopatra had betrayed Antony but that was only because like Antony we did not know the truth about what had really happened.
After the battle of Actium when Antony appears to a defeated man, he says the that he alone and isolated in the world that he has drifted away from his way for ever, it is not the appeal of suicide that overpowers him but the burden of his loyalty to Cleopatra.I think that as the main character Shakespeare wants us to side with Antony and view Cleopatra more as a ‘triple-turned whore’ although this makes us feel more sympathetic towards her. In the end it seems that cleopetra is to be blamed because the reason Antony kills himself is because of her and the reason of the dispute between him and Caesar is her. (Shakespeare 245)
In spite of the fact that i am a female, I am drawn to Antony for his loyalty and blind trust that he shows Cleopetra, while she is very conniving and manipulative, this nature of hers ultimately leads to Antony’s death. Antony’s character draws sympathy and gives me a feeling that he never truly knew Cleopetra, and never tried to explore her personality. It also helps me realise that men are much more strainghtforward, while women, though not conniving like Cleopetra, are more complex and have several facets to their personalities that cannot be deciphered by men as was the case of Antony.
Conclusion
In conclusion, in the play Antony and Cleopatra, Caesar has possesses all of the power and control whether it is manipulative, sexual, or political, Cleopatra is in love with Antony and he is in love with her, Cleopetra thinks that killing herself is the ultimate sacrifice she can make to show her love and commitment. She is always doing things to try and make him like her more or to make him jealous, although this is the case Antony and Cleopatra are the characters who end up having the decisive power which stops Caesar from having crucial political and military power over Rome, as it can be seen that Cleopetra in fact is a remarkable woman, who matured before her time. I believe that she is not a ‘Triple-turned whore’ but definitely a tragic heroine. Antony on the other had gains most of his power through the use of strategic thinking which links to the inspiration of military power, she dies in order to be with the man she loved, and if we review the play we see that although a lot of the time her actions are not very honorable to Antony, we but her actions cannot be questioned, because she loved him dearly and for this she eventually committed suicide. Through her reign came beauty, mystery, love, hate, passion, all things that being human and being part of humanity makes her intreguiging and facinating.
Work Cited
Shakespeare, William. Antony and Cleopatra (Cambridge School Shakespeare), Paperback, ISBN: 0-521-44584-1 / 978-0-521-44584-9, Cambridge University Press, 1994, p157-256.