Meaning of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra Term Paper

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Shakespeare's Antony And Cleopatra

William Shakespeare is important because, as T.S. Eliot said, Shakespeare (along with Dante) divide the world between them; there is no third."[footnoteRef:1] Eliot's point is that Shakespeare represents the height of modern drama and remains the ultimate "truth teller" for the modern world.[footnoteRef:2] Thus, Shakespeare's depiction of the classical figures of Mark Antony and Cleopatra, while not strictly historically accurate, is accurate in a more dramatic sense because they are representatives of the height and exaltation of human passion at odds with duty and the corrupting effects of the affairs of state. Antony and Cleopatra sit as though at the top of the world and may, in a sense, reflect the exultation that Shakespeare himself was feeling as a successful playwright in London, performing before the monarch, enjoying prestige and patronage, and sensing his own role in the "reshaping" or retelling of history through the lens that is at once medieval and modern and totally human. So as Shakespeare embodied the Christian and classical vision of the past (the Roman font of knowledge) and used it as a framework for his representation of the world during the Golden Age of Theater in England, the student of Shakespeare can develop a masterful understanding of human nature simply by studying his plays. [1: John Scott, Understanding Dante (IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2004), 2.] [2: David Allen White, Lectures on Shakespeare (Winona: St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary, 2000), 8.]

In Antony and Cleopatra, one receives not just a vision of the two historical characters through the eyes of a man who has been described as having one foot in the medieval world and one foot in the modern world, but also a grand vision of the heights of human passion/love as well as the terrible and terrifying lows.[footnoteRef:3] For, ultimately, Antony and Cleopatra is not so much a history of the two lovers as it is a tragic romance that squashes the Romantic with a capital "R" notion of sweet, saccharin, sentimental love and replaces it with real choices, real consequences, real displays of willfulness and folly, coupled with real displays of affection, love and the drug-like effect it can have on one at the height of his power such as Antony. After all, it is Antony who acts like one of Homer's Lotus-Eaters, forgetful of his duty before Rome during his extended holiday with Cleopatra. This paper will discuss the play Antony and Cleopatra and show how Shakespeare's talents and impact on the world can be felt and seen through it. [3: Ibid, 8.]

Shakespeare affected and was affected by the Tudor world in several ways. The Tudor period of English history is from 1485 to 1603 -- essentially the time of the reign of the Tudor dynasty, beginning with Henry VII and ending with the death of Queen Elizabeth. Shakespeare's theater company performed for the English monarchs, Elizabeth, and after her James, and thus presented English history in a way that was favorable to the crown. However, while there is much evidence to support the view that Shakespeare was Catholic and that his vision and plays were informed by the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church regarding human nature, Original Sin, salvation, etc., he lived in a time when England was Protestant and Roman Catholicism undergoing suppression. For this reason, it is argued by White and other scholars that the Catholicism in Shakespeare's plays is discernible but not explicit.[footnoteRef:4] This did not prevent Shakespeare from ridiculing Protestant notions when he saw fit, as he does through the character of Malvolio in Twelfth Night. So while Shakespeare did not publicly declare his Catholicism in a time of persecution, he did present in his plays the religious questions of the day and ultimately project a cohesive and Catholic view to his Protestant audience -- though never preaching nor condemning. This may be said to be the case in many of his plays, such as Antony and Cleopatra -- not just the English History plays. [4: Ibid, 8.]

In Antony and Cleopatra, for instance, the death scene of Cleopatra, in which she succumbs to the poison of the asps may be read by a Christian audience as indicative of the relationship between Eve, the serpent, and fallen human nature. Yet the reference is not overt and thus does not have to be taken in a specifically Christian or Catholic context. The horror of the scene is apparent enough without requiring specific religious allegory: "Peace, peace! Dost thou not see my baby at my breast, that suck the nurse asleep?" says Cleopatra to Charmain, referring to the deadly asp that she has place on herself.

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[footnoteRef:5] These are words of madness and despair, and recall the insanity of Lady Macbeth during her plunge into darkness. It was a two-fold recollection since Lady Macbeth also makes reference at the outset of her decline to "giving suck" to babies, whom she would snatch from her breast and bash into the ground if necessity demanded it. Shakespeare's audience would likely have made the connection, since Antony and Cleopatra was likely performed for the first time after Macbeth was staged.[footnoteRef:6] [5: William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, 5.2.3772-4.] [6: Rajiva Verma, "Winners and Losers: A Study of Macbeth and Antony and Cleopatra." The Modern Language Review, vol. 81, no. 4 (Oct., 1986), 838.]

In turn, the England of his day appreciated his honesty regarding society and human nature and made Shakespeare's company one of the most profitable in London.[footnoteRef:7] For example, Shakespeare depicted the relationship between nobility and excess, most eloquently in Antony and Cleopatra, by showing how great characters often allow themselves to engage in "riotous" merriment, as Antony does -- more so than Caesar.[footnoteRef:8] The ale-loving houses of London surely admired a playwright who so astutely understood their penchant for drink. Here, it may be argued that Shakespeare did for the Tudor dynasty what no other playwright ever did for history: he depicted its strengths and its weaknesses in a dramatic and/or comedic way that did not shy away from uglier moments but also represented dynastic history in a light that filled the audience with awe, pride, sometimes horror, sometimes mirth, but always appreciation. [7: Stephen Greenblatt, Will in the World (NY W.W. Norton, 2004), 255.] [8: Ibid, 68.]

Shakespeare had an abundant influence on subsequent thought, as the amount of scholarly research performed on Shakespeare shows. However, in relation to Antony and Cleopatra, Shakespeare's representation of the lovers was used by Eliot in his famous poem The Waste Land, when Eliot depicts the woman sitting in her room upon a chair that looks "like a burnished throne" -- a line from Shakespeare's play referring to the throne of Cleopatra.[footnoteRef:9] Eliot was pointing out the discrepancy between the modern woman and the classical woman (highlighting the superficiality of the modern). Shakespeare's classical woman is, on the contrary, larger than life and the "burnished throne" suits her well. She represents the epitome of womanly brilliance and beauty, but also the epitome of womanly willfulness divorced from its natural end (and thus one might argue that her end with snakes being her "babies" is appropriate). [9 T.S. Eliot, "The Waste Land," line 77.]

And yet Antony and Cleopatra also serves as a commentary on both the state of government, politics, and power in his England as well as what the future holds in store for leaders who indulge their passions to excess, as Antony and Cleopatra do. The audience, however, is sympathetic towards the two titular characters because they are so humanly drawn, so full of noble thoughts. It is almost as though they are at the doorstep of Eden, of the Paradise of Old -- yet they cannot quite be admitted because they are still part of that fallen world which continuously calls them back. Nor can they be admitted to that spiritual Eden because their lives are dedicated to the feeling of love rather than the ideal of love as equated to goodness, rightness, truth, etc. Thus, the two enjoy one another's company and bask in the glow of one another and admire each other with brilliant lines and passages -- but they cannot cement their love in truth or beauty because it is rooted in passionate feeling, despondency in a sense -- their despair over the state of their empires and the fact that they must take care of them when all they would really rather do is live in the paradise of their love. In this sense, Shakespeare suggests that their love, as great as it is, is not real because it is not based in reality but rather in fleeting feelings, which when they go or turn to displeasure, as can be seen repeatedly with Cleopatra, turn to hatred and self-destruction. This is a pitiable state for lovers to be in -- and that appears to be the value of Shakespeare's play and the lesson that can be enjoyed not only by his time but also by future generations as well.….....

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