Antony and Cleopatra Essay - Antony and Cleopatra

Antony and Cleopatra Essay - Antony and Cleopatra

Cleopatra is one of the most fascinating women in world history and literature, largely thanks to Shakespeare’s multifaceted characterization of her. Volatile and passionate, impetuous and manipulative, trivial and dignified, she commands not only Mark Antony and Egypt but the audience as well.

The play revolves around their love, yet its focus is political, for its principals are rulers of the world and scenes take place all over the Roman Empire in the 4th century B.C. Cleopatra is the Queen of Egypt; Antony, Octavius Caesar (later Augustus), and Lepidus form the triumvirate ruling the Roman Empire. Caesar and Antony, however, are frequently at odds, especially because Antony spends more time amid the pleasures of Egypt than on the field of battle.

Caesar is a cool, calculating politician, while Antony is more the fiery soldier. Caesar tries to win Antony back from Cleopatra’s spells by having him marry Octavia, his sister, but Cleopatra’s appeal is too strong.

Unfortunately, Cleopatra’s hold over Antony leads to his defeat. Yet their suicides signify a triumph over Caesar, for at least they shall not be his captives. In their deaths, they regain the valiant nobility absent from many of their prior acts.

The play’s perennial conflicts--between reason and passion, politics and personal feelings--can never be resolved. Yet, however far from admirable these characters may sometimes appear, they have a grandeur of personality and magnificence of language that makes the reader or viewer perceive them almost as gods.