The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra

-Tragedy
-written: 1606–1607
-published: First Folio of 1623
-Setting (Time): 40–30 b.c.
-Major Conflict: Antony is torn between his duties as a Roman ruler and soldier and his desire to live
in Egypt with his lover, Cleopatra. This inner conflict leads him to become embroiled in a war with
Caesar, one of his fellow triumvirs.
-Rising Action: Caesar lures Antony out of Egypt and back to Rome, and marries Antony to his sister,
Octavia. Antony eventually returns to Egypt and Cleopatra, and Caesar prepares to lead an army
against Antony.
-Climax: Antony disgraces himself by fleeing the battle of Actium to follow Cleopatra, betraying his
own image of himself as a noble Roman.
-Falling Action: Cleopatra abandons Antony during the second naval battle, leaving him to suffer an
insurmountable defeat.

Background
Scholars believe that Shakespeare wrote Antony and Cleopatra in 1606, immediately after
Macbeth, and it is one of the last great tragedies that Shakespeare produced. The most
geographically sweeping of Shakespeare’s plays, Antony and Cleopatra’s setting is the entire
Roman Empire, its backdrop the well-documented history of Octavius Caesar, Marc Antony, and
Cleopatra. Shakespeare’s primary source for Antony and Cleopatra was the Life of Marcus
Antonius contained in Plutarch’s Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans, which was translated
into English by Sir Thomas North in 1579. North’s language was so rich that Shakespeare
incorporated large, relatively unchanged excerpts of it into his text. The plot of the play also
remains close to North’s history, although characters like Enobarbus and Cleopatra’s attendants
are largely Shakespearean creations.
The action of the story takes place roughly two years after the events of Shakespeare’s earlier
play about the Roman Empire, Julius Caesar. At the beginning of that tragedy, Caesar has
triumphed over his rival Pompey the Great, the father of young Pompey in Antony and Cleopatra,
and aspires to kingship. Caesar is then assassinated by Cassius and Brutus, who hope to
preserve the Roman Republic. Instead, Cassius and Brutus are defeated by Mark Antony and
Octavius Caesar, Julius’s nephew, who then join Marcus Aemilius Lepidus to create a three-man
government, or triumvirate, over the empire.
Historically, the action of Antony and Cleopatra takes place over a ten-year span, whereas in the
play the story is compressed to fit the needs of the stage. Antony is clearly much older than he
was in Julius Caesar, and his political instincts seem to be waning. Octavius Caesar was only a
minor character in the earlier play, but here he comes into his own as the man who will rise to
become the first Roman emperor. Most of the political battles and machinations depicted are
historically accurate, as is the romance of the title characters.
Summary
Mark Antony, one of three rulers of Rome, is in love with Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt. Antony is
summoned back to Rome, where he clashes with another ruler Octavius before returning to
Cleopatra in Egypt. Now in battle with Octavius, Antony and Cleopatra suffer losses and
miscommunication, and both eventually commit suicide.

Act I
After the death of Julius Caesar, the Roman Empire is ruled by three men: Mark Antony, Octavius
Caesar, and Lepidus.
Mark Antony commands the eastern Mediterranean and lives in Egypt. He has also become
infatuated with Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt. After the death of his wife, Fulvia, and the rebellion of
Pompey against his fellow ruler Octavius, Antony is forced to leave for Rome. He travels with his
friend Enobarbus.
The first scene is set in Alexandria, where two of Antony's men, Demetrius and Philo, describe the
lovers' relationship. Caesar appears in a later scene, and we see how he perceives Antony and
Cleopatra's relationship. In addition, his comments about Antony reveal a great deal about his own
character. We also have ample evidence in this act that Antony and Cleopatra are deeply in love, but
Antony does not realize the tragic possibilities of their infatuation, yet he is torn by divided loyalties.
In short, this first act sets out what the relationships are among the main characters, and it establishes
the basic conflicts that dominate the rest of the play: first, Antony and Cleopatra and their love for
one another; and second, Antony's rivalry with Caesar.

Act II
In this act, Shakespeare accelerates the inevitable final conflict between his primary characters.
Pompey, an insurgent force against Rome, has become enough of a threat to the Roman Empire that
the triumvirs are forced to form a truce in order to present a united front.
In Rome, Antony and Octavius Caesar argue over the former's escapades in Egypt. They eventually
decide that their friendship must be cemented by a political marriage between Antony and Octavia,
Caesar's sister. Enobarbus refuses to believe that Antony will desert Cleopatra and tells his Roman
friends about the Egyptian court. The rulers, including Lepidus, make peace with the rebellious
Pompey, who entertains them on his ship in the harbour. During the feast, Pompey refuses to allow
his men to murder the triumvirate (Lepidus).

Act III
Most of the main events of the play have their beginnings in this act. It begins with the continued
efforts on Antony's part to work on behalf of Rome and regain his stature in the world of politics and
war. But before long, he tires of the pursuit of power in Rome and decides to return to Egypt.
Cleopatra receives the news of Antony's marriage. After a fit of rage and jealousy, she realises that
Octavia offers no real romantic challenge.
Octavia accompanies Antony to Athens, there, they learn that Caesar has revoked his peace treaty
and attacked Pompey and also betrayed the triumvirate agreement by imprisoning Lepidus. Antony
sends Octavia back to Rome to try to renew peace and Antony decides to return to Cleopatra.
Octavia's disgrace gives Caesar sufficient reason to hate Antony even more than he already does, and
he vows revenge. Octavia's discovery that Antony is glorifying Cleopatra and her children, one of
them the illegitimate son of Julius Caesar, provides enough of an excuse for Caesar to declare that
both Antony and Cleopatra are traitors. War begins and despite Enobarbus's advice, Antony decides
to fight at sea at Actium. In the battle, Cleopatra's ships flee from the Roman fleet, and Antony is
defeated; the rest of the play focuses, thus, on the aftermath of this battle and its effect on the love
between Antony and Cleopatra.

Act IV
Humiliated by his love for Cleopatra, Antony eventually chooses to fight Caesar on land. His army
begins to lose faith in their leader after many portents of Antony's supposedly inevitable defeat.
Enobarbus deserts Antony and defects to Caesar's army, leaving Antony saddened, not angry.
Enobarbus is overcome with guilt for his betrayal of Antony and dies alone in his grief.
At the battle, Cleopatra's men flee, abandoning Antony. Fearing Antony's anger, Cleopatra takes
refuge in her monument. She hopes to make Antony see the error of his doubts about her by sending
him word that she is dead. When Antony fears that Cleopatra has betrayed him to Caesar, she sends
false word that she is dead, hoping to win over his affections once more. Antony is devastated by the
news and resolves to die himself. He falls onto his sword and is mortally wounded. At this point,
Cleopatra's messenger goes to inform him that the queen is still alive and finds him dying alone.
Antony is then taken up into the monument by Cleopatra and her waiting women, and he dies in
Cleopatra's arms.

Act V
This final act concentrates on Cleopatra's last hours, as she negotiates with the Roman victors.Caesar
has promised that she will be treated with honor in Rome, but she has good reason not to believe
him. One of Caesar's officers, Dolabella, warns her not to put her faith in Caesar's promises.
Cleopatra resolves to die rather than be taken captive to Rome. She has a countryman bring her
poisonous snakes in a basket. Her waiting women dress her in state robes before she lays an asp on
her breast and dies, along with her women. Caesar, upon discovering the bodies, orders that Antony
and Cleopatra be buried together. Now unhindered in his quest for Egypt, and conveniently lacking
in political foes, Caesar returns to Rome and becomes Emperor.

Themes

Love Pleasure and Decadence

Antony and Cleopatra opens with a scene in which Antony professes his unfathomable love for
Cleopatra and, while the play covers much of the political drama surrounding the crumbling of the
Roman republic and creation of the Roman Empire under Octavius, it is also centrally about the romantic
relationship between Antony and Cleopatra (after all, it’s not entitled Antony and Octavius). Antony tells
Cleopatra that his love has no bounds, and often it certainly does seem excessive. It keeps him from
important business in Rome, clouds his judgment, and is at the very least a contributing factor to his
downfall. This is not to say that Antony’s love is wholly negative or that all love in the play is bad, though.
One can view Antony’s love for Cleopatra as (at times) a powerful, genuine devotion to another person.
Moreover, the close bond between Octavius and his sister Octavia suggests the positive nature of
familial love. Antony’s love is so destructive to himself perhaps because it is mostly a matter of lust and
reckless passion.
Enobarbus says that Cleopatra does not satisfy Antony’s appetite for love but rather “makes hungry /
Where she most satisfies.” In this, he compares Antony’s desire to other forms of appetite. And indeed it
is not merely love that Antony indulges in while in Egypt. He and Cleopatra feast, drink, and carouse
decadently. Cleopatra herself seems at times obsessed with beauty and pleasure. All of Egypt becomes
associated in the play with a decadent, luxurious lifestyle. This fits with long-standing cultural stereotypes
by which western art and literature has often caricatured the east as a place of decadence and leisure,
and contributes to a conflict between east and west personified by Antony and Octavius (between whom
the world is divided politically). The individual dispute between Antony and Octavius can be seen as a
conflict between Rome’s western austerity and Egypt’s eastern luxury. Antony is a Roman, but the play
follows his transformation as he moves to Egypt and becomes more and more in thrall to his own desires
for various forms of pleasure. At the end of the play, Octavius is victorious, suggesting that his practical
austerity conquers Antony’s licentious lifestyle of pleasure. But the play is a tragedy: Shakespeare
presents the downfall of Antony and Cleopatra sympathetically, bestowing some honor on them even as
they lose themselves among the pleasures of the Egyptian court.

Honor, Loyalty and Betrayal

Antony and Cleopatra takes place at a time of serious political turmoil and civil strife, with leaders rising
and falling, as Fulvia, Pompey, Lepidus, Octavius, Antony, and Cleopatra all jostle for political power.
Thus, ordinary people, advisors, soldiers, and attendants are forced to decide who to follow and be loyal
to. The leaders, meanwhile, must rely on the loyalty of their followers. It is when Antony's soldiers
effectively desert that Antony is finally defeated. Beyond political or military loyalty, there is also the issue
of marital loyalty and fidelity. Antony basically deserts his wife Fulvia for Cleopatra, and marries Octavia
even though he intends to stay with Cleopatra. In addition, he often fears that Cleopatra is betraying him
both politically and romantically.
The play is thus very interested in questions of loyalty and betrayal. Many characters face dilemmas,
which complicate any simple notions of these ideas. Enobarbus is loyal to Antony for much of the play,
but reasons that it is folly to stay loyal to a fool, and so leaves for Octavius’ camp. Menas decides to
leave Pompey, because Pompey refuses to seize opportunity. Antony can also be seen as facing a crisis
of loyalty: in waging civil war against Octavius, he is in some sense betraying his own country.

When faced with these dilemmas, characters must weigh the importance of loyalty against both
self-interest and personal honor, which could be defined as loyalty to one's own values or ideals.
However, Antony loses even personal honor when he flees the battle of Actium. Perhaps no character is
wholly innocent of betrayal, though. Octavius is treacherous: not only does he turn on Lepidus, but also,
after conquering Antony, he promises Cleopatra not to humiliate her as a prisoner in his military triumph,
though he actually does plan to do this. Shakespeare’s play presents a messy series of complicated
political, military, civil, and personal matters, in which figuring out the most honorable or loyal thing to do
is never easy. Betrayal is a brutal fact of the real world in the play, and the last person
standing—Octavius—does not achieve victory because he is the most honorable or loyal, but merely
because he is able to survive all of the betrayals and shifting loyalties of his time.

Strategy, Manipulation and Power

As various political players struggle for control over the crumbling Roman republic, most of the play’s
characters attempt to strategize and manipulate their way to safety and power. Alliances shift throughout
the play, as Antony and Octavius begin on the same side (against Pompey), before Octavius turns on
Lepidus, and Antony and Octavius turn on each other. Lesser commanders must figure out their own
strategies, as well. Enobarbus leaves Antony, hoping it will get him a better chance at prospering with
Octavius, while Menas hopes to leave Pompey in order to attain more power for himself. And Antony’s
general Ventidius decides not to pursue the fleeing Parthians so as not to accomplish too much and rival
Antony’s authority.

All the characters in the play must plan their actions carefully, as any wrong move can result in making
the wrong enemy. All this strategy and manipulation trickles down into the personal and domestic
spheres, as well. Cleopatra often tries to manipulate Antony (sending him a false message that she is
dead, for example, in order to see his reaction), and Antony strategically marries Octavius’ sister
Octavia. From the battlefield to the bedroom, Antony and Cleopatra is full of plotting characters striving
against one another. Octavius can be seen as the one character whose plans actually come to fruition,
but Cleopatra is able to thwart him with one last stratagem: by ending her own life she takes control over
her fate and refuses to be taken as a prisoner of war. Octavius may have defeated her in battle, but
Cleopatra’s clever plotting allows her to find some form of victory in defeat, some power amid
powerlessness.

Gender Roles
Throughout the play, Antony and Cleopatra’s relationship transgresses the bounds of traditional gender
roles. Cleopatra is powerful and manipulative, and Antony seems to become weaker and less decisive
as he spends more time under her sway. His men worry that he is under the control of Cleopatra and his
soldier Canidius tells a fellow soldier that because of this they are “women’s men.” In Act 2, Scene 5,
Cleopatra mentions a time that she got Antony drunk and they wore each other’s clothes for amusement.
This exchange of clothes symbolizes the exchange of traditionally male and female roles that occurs in
their relationship. This reversal comes to a disastrous head at the important battle of Actium, where
Cleopatra insists on fighting in the battle, like a man, and Antony ends up fleeing in an unmanly way.

The transgression of gender roles in Antony and Cleopatra’s relationship is made even clearer by the
behavior of other characters, in particular Octavius and his sister Octavia. Octavius is restrained (he
doesn’t drink too much on Pompey’s boat, for example), strong, and brave; he is an exemplar of
traditional masculinity and, as such, a foil for Antony. Likewise, Octavia can be seen as a kind of foil for
Cleopatra, with her demure obedience to the men in her life. These figures of traditional gender roles are
ultimately victorious. As Octavius defeats Antony and Cleopatra, one may see the conclusion of the play
as dramatizing the reestablishment of both political stability and traditional gender roles. However,
Cleopatra and Antony have noble deaths, eliciting sympathy and respect even from Octavius himself.
While the dangerously powerful Cleopatra is defeated, the play perhaps represents her death less as a
necessary return of power into male hands and more as a lamentable consequence of her having power
in a world not ready for women to wield it.

The Struggle Between Reason and Emotion

In his opening lines to Demetrius, Philo complains that Antony has abandoned the military endeavors on
which his reputation is based for Cleopatra’s sake. His criticism of Antony’s “dotage,” or stupidity,
introduces a tension between reason and emotion that runs throughout the play (I.i.1). Antony and
Cleopatra’s first exchange heightens this tension, as they argue whether their love can be put into words
and understood or whether it exceeds such faculties and boundaries of reason. If, according to Roman
consensus, Antony is the military hero and disciplined statesmen that Caesar and others believe him to
be, then he seems to have happily abandoned his reason in order to pursue his passion. He declares:
“Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide arch / Of the ranged empire fall” (I.i.35–36). The play, however, is
more concerned with the battle between reason and emotion than the triumph of one over the other, and
this battle is waged most forcefully in the character of Antony. More than any other character in the play,
Antony vacillates between Western and Eastern sensibilities, feeling pulled by both his duty to the
empire and his desire for pleasure, his want of military glory and his passion for Cleopatra. Soon after his
nonchalant dismissal of Caesar’s messenger, the empire, and his duty to it, he chastises himself for his
neglect and commits to return to Rome, lest he “lose [him]self in dotage” (I.ii.106).

As the play progresses, Antony continues to inhabit conflicting identities that play out the struggle
between reason and emotion. At one moment, he is the vengeful war hero whom Caesar praises and
fears. Soon thereafter, he sacrifices his military position by unwisely allowing Cleopatra to determine his
course of action. As his Roman allies—even the ever-faithful Enobarbus—abandon him, Antony feels
that he has, indeed, lost himself in dotage, and he determines to rescue his noble identity by taking his
own life. At first, this course of action may appear to be a triumph of reason over passion, of -Western
sensibilities over Eastern ones, but the play is not that simple. Although Antony dies believing himself a
man of honor, discipline, and reason, our understanding of him is not nearly as straight-forward. In order
to come to terms with Antony’s character, we must analyze the aspects of his identity that he ignores. He
is, in the end, a man ruled by passion as much as by reason. Likewise, the play offers us a worldview in
which one sensibility cannot easily dominate another. Reason cannot ever fully conquer the passions,
nor can passion wholly undo reason.

The Clash of East and West

Although Antony and Cleopatra details the conflict between Rome and Egypt, giving us an idea of the
Elizabethan perceptions of the difference between Western and Eastern cultures, it does not make a
definitive statement about which culture ultimately triumphs. In the play, the Western and Eastern poles
of the world are characterized by those who inhabit them: Caesar, for instance, embodies the stoic duty
of the West, while Cleopatra, in all her theatrical grandeur, represents the free-flowing passions of the
East. Caesar’s concerns throughout the play are certainly imperial: he means to invade foreign lands in
order to invest them with traditions and sensibilities of his own. But the play resists siding with this
imperialist impulse. Shakespeare, in other words, does not align the play’s sympathies with the West;
Antony and Cleopatra can hardly be read as propaganda for Western domination. On the contrary, the
Roman understanding of Cleopatra and her kingdom seems exceedingly superficial. To Caesar, the
queen of Egypt is little more than a whore with a flair for drama. His perspective allows little room for the
real power of Cleopatra’s sexuality—she can, after all, persuade the most decorated of generals to follow
her into ignoble retreat. Similarly, it allows little room for the indomitable strength of her will, which she
demonstrates so forcefully at the end of the play as she refuses to allow herself to be turned into a
“Egyptian puppet” for the entertainment of the Roman masses (V.ii.204).
In Antony and Cleopatra, West meets East, but it does not, regardless of Caesar’s triumph over the land
of Egypt, conquer it. Cleopatra’s suicide suggests that something of the East’s spirit, the freedoms and
passions that are not represented in the play’s conception of the West, cannot be subsumed by Caesar’s
victory. The play suggests that the East will live on as a visible and unconquerable counterpoint to the
West, bound as inseparably and eternally as Antony and Cleopatra are in their tomb.

The Definition of Honor

Throughout the play, characters define honor variously, and often in ways that are not intuitive. As
Antony prepares to meet Caesar in battle, he determines that he “will live / Or bathe [his] dying honour in
the blood / Shall make it live again” (IV.ii.5–7). Here, he explicitly links the notion of honor to to that of
death, suggesting the latter as a surefire means of achieving the former. The play bears out this
assertion, since, although Antony and Cleopatra kill themselves for different reasons, they both imagine
that the act invests them with honor. In death, Antony returns to his identity as a true, noble Roman,
becoming “a Roman by a Roman / Valiantly vanquished” (IV.xvi.59–60), while Cleopatra resolves to “bury
him, and then what’s brave, what’s noble, / Let’s do it after the high Roman fashion” (IV.xvi.89–90). At
first, the queen’s words seem to suggest that honor is a distinctly Roman attribute, but Cleopatra’s death,
which is her means of ensuring that she remains her truest, most uncompromised self, is distinctly
against Rome. In Antony and Cleopatra, honor seems less a function of Western or Eastern culture than
of the characters’ determination to define themselves on their own terms. Both Antony and Cleopatra
secure honorable deaths by refusing to compromise their identities.

Symbols
The Changing Clouds
Late in act four, as Antony prepares to end his own life, he describes to Eros how “sometimes we see a
cloud that’s dragonish; / A vapour sometime like a bear or lion,” and goes on to talk about clouds that
appear to look like one thing but then quickly change and dissolve into indistinct shapes. Antony tells
Eros that he is like these clouds: he cannot maintain his identity or appearance as a strong leader, and is
now dissolving into defeat and death. This is certainly one meaning of the highly symbolic image of the
clouds, but they can also be seen as representing Antony’s hopes and ambitions, which dissolve before
him as he realizes that he has lost the fight against Octavius. Similarly, the clouds could represent the
future more generally.

Characters List
Mark Antony A middle-aged Roman general who rules the Roman Empire along with Lepidus and
Octavius Caesar. He is torn between his desire for Cleopatra and the demands of his position as a world
ruler.
Octavius Caesar The adopted son of Julius Caesar, his grand-uncle, he is only in his early twenties, but
he is determined to ultimately be the sole ruler of the Roman Empire.
Lepidus As a member of the Triumvirate, he serves as a mediator between Antony and Caesar, the two
rivals; he has no real power of his own.
Cleopatra She is aware of her duties as Queen of Egypt, but she is deeply infatuated with Antony; her
heroic courage is revealed when she and Antony are defeated and she chooses to die in Egypt, rather
than return to Rome as a captive.
Octavia She becomes engaged to Antony in order to cement a political and military truce between
Antony and her brother, Caesar.
Sextus Pompeius (Pompey) Formerly a Roman, Pompey left Rome with a faction that included several
pirates and some of Julius Caesar's navy. He attempted to form his own kingdom, and he is able to
cause the Triumvirate trouble by plundering their ships.
Enobarbus Antony's trusted lieutenant and close friend; eventually, he deserts the man he both admires
and pokes fun at, yet he later commits suicide in remorse.
Ventidius Another of Antony's officers, he is sent to fight the Parthians. He is a brave and capable
general and is absolutely loyal to Antony.
Searus Another of Antony's officers; he serves as Antony's aide after Enobarbus deserts his general.
Dercetas He is one of the first to find Antony after Antony has tried to kill himself. Dercetas deserts to
Caesar's faction, taking Antony's sword as a sign that the enemy is almost defeated.
Demetrius and Philo These friends of Antony's are among those who go with him to Egypt. They long to
see their general as he was before he fell in love and forgot about his political and military duties.
Canidius He is a Lieutenant General to Antony, but he deserts Antony's camp for Caesar's faction after
Antony's first major defeat.
Euphronius He serves as an ambassador from Antony to Caesar.
Fulvia She does not appear in the play, but she is Antony's first wife.
Taurus As lieutenant General to Caesar, his strategies help Caesar to win the war against the forces of
Antony and Cleopatra.
Maecenas An officer and a friend of Caesar; when the triumvirs meet at the house of Lepidus in Rome to
effect a truce, Maecenas is present.
Agrippa Another friend of Caesar; along with Maecenas, he never judges Antony quite as lightly as does
his general.
Proculeius This friend of Caesar acts as a messenger and tells Cleopatra on behalf of Caesar that she
need not be afraid for her welfare.
Dolabella Unlike Proculeius, Dolabella feels pity for Cleopatra and warns her that Caesar's promises to
her may be empty ones.
Thyreus He also acts as a messenger, telling Cleopatra of Antony's defeat and Octavius's victory.
Charmian She is one of Cleopatra's closest friends and court confidantes.
Iras Another of Cleopatra's attendants.
Alexas A servant of Cleopatra who acts as a messenger between her and Antony.
Mardian This member of Cleopatra's entourage is a eunuch, a fact which Cleopatra enjoys teasing him
about.
Menas A pirate; he advises Pompey to take the triumvirs captive and have them murdered while they
are attending a banquet aboard his ship.
Menecrates As a chief officer of Pompey, he helps his general plan strategies.
Varrius He is warlike and ambitious, like Pompey, but he is less unscrupulous than Menas.
Eros and Gallus Eros is a friend of Antony's; Gallus is a friend of Caesar's.
Silius An officer in Ventidius's army.
Seleucus and Diomedes Attendants to Cleopatra.
A Soothsayer A fortuneteller who tells Charmian that she will outlive Cleopatra.