Complete Summary and Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra
Complete Summary and Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra
Summary of Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra
William Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra is a play that consist of 5 act and a total of 78 scene. The play opens with Mark Antony, one of the three rulers of the Roman Empire, spends his time in Egypt, living a life of decadence and conducting an affair with the country’s beautiful queen, Cleopatra. When a message arrives informing him that his wife, Fulvia, is dead and that Pompey is raising an army to rebel against the triumvirate, Antony decides to return to Rome. In Antony’s absence, Octavius Caesar and Lepidus, his fellow triumvirs, worry about Pompey’s increasing strength. Octavius condemns Antony for neglecting his duties as a statesman and military officer in order to live a decadent life by Cleopatra’s side.
The news of his wife’s death and imminent battle pricks Antony’s sense of duty, and he feels compelled to return to Rome. Upon his arrival, he and Octavius quarrel, while Lepidus tries ineffectually to make peace. Realizing that an alliance is necessary to defeat Pompey, Antony and Octavius agree that Antony will marry Octavius’s sister, Octavia, who will solidify their loyalty to one another. Enobarbus, Antony’s closest friend, predicts to Octavius’s men that, despite the marriage, Antony will surely return to Cleopatra.
Complete Summary and Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra
In Egypt, Cleopatra learns of Antony’s marriage and flies into a jealous rage. However, when a messenger delivers word that Octavia is plain and unimpressive, Cleopatra becomes confident that she will win Antony back. The triumvirs meet Pompey and settle their differences without going to battle. Pompey agrees to keep peace in exchange for rule over Sicily and Sardinia. That evening, the four men drink to celebrate their truce. One of Pompey’s soldiers discloses to him a plan to assassinate the triumvirs, thereby delivering world power into Pompey’s hands, but Pompey dismisses the scheme as an affront to his honor. Meanwhile, one of Antony’s generals wins a victory over the kingdom of Parthia.
Antony and Octavia depart for Athens. Once they are gone, Octavius breaks his truce, wages war against Pompey, and defeats him. After using Lepidus’s army to secure a victory, he accuses Lepidus of treason, imprisons him, and confiscates his land and possessions. This news angers Antony, as do the rumors that Octavius has been speaking out against him in public. Octavia pleads with Antony to maintain a peaceful relationship with her brother. Should Antony and Octavius fight, she says, her affections would be painfully divided. Antony dispatches her to Rome on a peace mission, and quickly returns to Egypt and Cleopatra. There, he raises a large army to fight Octavius, and Octavius, incensed over Antony’s treatment of his sister, responds in kind. Octavius commands his army and navy to Egypt. Ignoring all advice to the contrary, Antony elects to fight him at sea, allowing Cleopatra to command a ship despite Enobarbus’s strong objections. Antony’s forces lose the battle when Cleopatra’s ship flees and Antony’s follows, leaving the rest of the fleet vulnerable.
Antony despairs, condemning Cleopatra for leading him into infamy but quickly forgiving her. He and Cleopatra send requests to their conqueror: Antony asks to be allowed to live in Egypt, while Cleopatra asks that her kingdom be passed down to her rightful heirs. Octavius dismisses Antony’s request, but he promises Cleopatra a fair hearing if she betrays her lover. Cleopatra seems to be giving thought to Octavius’s message when Antony barges in, curses her for her treachery, and orders the innocent messenger whipped. When, moments later, Antony forgives Cleopatra, Enobarbus decides that his master is finished and defects to Octavius’s camp.
Antony meets Octavius’s troops in battle and scores an unexpected victory. When he learns of Enobarbus’s desertion, Antony laments his own bad fortune, which he believes has corrupted an honorable man. He sends his friend’s possessions to Octavius’s camp and returns to Cleopatra to celebrate his victory. Enobarbus, undone by shame at his own disloyalty, collapses under the weight of his guilt and dies.
Another day brings another battle, and once again Antony meets Octavius at sea. As before, the Egyptian fleet proves treacherous; it abandons the fight and leaves Antony to suffer defeat. Convinced that his lover has betrayed him, Antony vows to kill Cleopatra. To protect herself, she sequesters herself in her monument and sends word that she has committed suicide. Antony, racked with grief, determines to join his queen in the afterlife. He commands one of his attendants to fulfill his promise of unquestioned service and kill him. The attendant kills himself instead. Antony then falls on his own sword, but the wound is not immediately fatal. He is carried to Cleopatra’s monument, where the lovers are reunited briefly before Antony’s death. Octavius takes the queen prisoner, planning to display her in Rome as a testament to the might of his empire, but she learns of his plan and kills herself with the help of several poisonous snakes. Octavius has her buried beside Antony.
Complete Summary and Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra
ACT AND SCENE SUMMARY
Act 1
Scene 1
Antony and Cleopatra discuss Antony’s responsibilities in Rome, which Antony no longer cares about because of his love for Cleopatra.
Scene 2
Antony decides to return to Rome after learning that his wife and brother have unsuccessfully raised a rebellion against Caesar, resulting in his wife’s death.
Scene 3
Cleopatra chides Antony and questions how much love Antony really feels for Cleopatra.
Scene 4
Octavius Caesar blames Antony for fooling around in Egypt when he should be defending Rome. Pompey is gaining strength.
Scene 5
Cleopatra is worried by Antony’s departure for Rome but is relieved after he sends her a gift, which prompts her to vow to stay in touch with Antony through messengers.
Act 2
Scene 1
Pompey is initially confident about his ability to defeat the triumvirate (Caesar, Antony, and Lepidus), because the formidable Antony is busy in Egypt. However, Pompey learns that Antony is returning.
Scene 2
Antony and Caesar argue about Antony’s absence and the army raised by his wife and brother. Antony agrees to marry Caesar’s sister to bond the two leaders together.
Scene 3
After a soothsayer advises Antony to put some distance between Antony and Caesar, Antony decides to launch a military campaign in the eastern land of Parthia.
Scene 4
Lepidus orders Maecenas and Agrippa to gather their soldiers and meet at Mount Misenum, where they will confront Pompey’s army.
Scene 5
A messenger tells Cleopatra that Antony has married Octavia. Cleopatra sends the messenger to go look at Octavia and report back what she is like.
Scene 6
Pompey and the triumvirate meet before battle. They seem to come to a peaceful agreement.
Scene 7
The triumvirate become drunk and Pompey and his men debate whether to kill the three men while they are defenseless.
Act 3
Scene 1
Ventidius is victorious in Parthia, but decides not to press his victory lest he become too successful, and fall out of favor with Antony.
Scene 2
After the night of drinking aboard Pompey’s ship, Antony and Caesar discuss Antony’s marriage to Octavia before Antony and Octavia leave Rome.
Scene 3
Cleopatra’s messenger returns and Cleopatra is delighted to learn that Octavia is short and lifeless. Cleopatra believes that Antony will return to her side.
Scene 4
Antony tells Octavia that he feels disrespected by Caesar, though Octavia suggests that Antony has no need to worry. Antony sends Octavia to Rome to make peace with Caesar.
Scene 5
Enobarbus and Eros describe how Caesar and Lepidus defeated Pompey together in battle before Caesar then turned on Lepidus out of paranoia.
Complete Summary and Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra
Scene 6
Caesar says that Antony has settled in Egypt to serve as a king with Cleopatra, but that Caesar is willing to make peace and exchange conquered lands with Antony. Octavia is heartbroken to learn that Antony has returned to Cleopatra.
Scene 7
Antony plans to confront Caesar at sea with Cleopatra’s fleet, even though his advisors strongly recommend waiting for land battle.
Scene 8
Caesar orders his army to hold off its attack until the sea battle ends.
Scene 9
Antony instructs Enobarbus to set their squadrons on a hillside, which will allow them to view the battle at sea.
Scene 10
Enobarbus describes the sea battle between Antony and Caesar. It looked like Antony was winning but then Cleopatra fled the fight and Antony followed behind her, leaving Caesar to win.
Scene 11
Antony, deeply ashamed for abandoning the battle, tells Cleopatra that he was once noble and reliable. Antony decides he must try to make peace with Caesar.
Scene 12
Caesar receives messengers from Antony and Cleopatra asking for mercy. Caesar says that he will let Egypt remain in the hands of Cleopatra’s descendants if she betrays Antony.
Scene 13
Cleopatra decides to betray Antony. Antony is suspicious but still trusts her. Antony is becoming irrational and Enobarbus realizes it’s time to leave Antony’s army.
Act 4
Scene 1
Caesar rejects Antony’s challenge of one-to-one combat, instead planning to utterly crush Antony and his army for good.
Scene 2
Antony tells his men that this may be his last night alive, causing them to weep. Antony encourages everyone to enjoy this evening before the battle.
Scene 3
Antony’s soldiers hear strange music that they believe is the music of Hercules, the god after whom Antony modeled himself and who they believe now abandons him.
Scene 4
Eros and Cleopatra help Antony put his armor on. Antony is confident about victory as he prepares to lead his men into battle.
Scene 5
Antony learns that Enobarbus has deserted him, but that he left his wealth behind. Antony commands that the wealth be returned to Enobarbus to shame him for his departure.
Scene 6
Caesar confidently prepares to begin the battle with Antony’s defected soldiers at the front of his army, while Enobarbus receives his possessions from Antony and declares himself a villain.
Scene 7
Agrippa calls for his troops to retreat, declaring that the power of Antony’s forces has exceeded his expectations.
Scene 8
Antony returns from the battle victorious, praising his soldiers and declaring his love for Cleopatra.
Complete Summary and Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra
Scene 9
Enobarbus criticizes himself for being a traitor and a fugitive, eventually collapsing dead on the ground.
Scene 10
Antony determines that Caesar means to attack him by sea and declares himself ready.
Scene 11
Caesar holds his armies back, preparing to attack Antony at sea.
Scene 12
Antony watches the naval battle as Cleopatra’s fleet betrays him and joins Caesar’s side. Antony becomes furious with Cleopatra and threatens to kill her.
Scene 13
Upon the advice of her maid, Cleopatra locks herself inside of a monument and has word sent to Antony that she has killed herself.
Complete Summary and Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra
Scene 14
Upon hearing news of Cleopatra’s death, Antony asks Eros to kill him, although Eros refuses and kills himself instead. Antony then attempts to kill himself but fails to do it quickly, learning that Cleopatra is still alive.
Scene 15
Antony is brought to Cleopatra and dies. Cleopatra decides to kill herself. [Note: Some version of the play contain a Scene16 for Act 4 in which actions described here as occurring in Scene 15 occur.]
Act 5
Scene 1
Caesar learns of Antony’s death and declares that Antony was ultimately an honorable man who deserves to be mourned. Caesar reveals that he does not intend to harm Cleopatra, but plans to take her back to Rome as a trophy for his victory in Egypt.
Scene 2
Cleopatra is captured by Caesar’s men, but rather than let herself be paraded through the streets of Rome as a trophy, she kills herself with poisonous snakes. When Caesar learns of her death he orders that she be buried with honor next to Antony’s grave.
Themes in William Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra
- The Struggle between Reason and Emotion
In the play’s opening lines, Philo complains to Demetrius 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 (1.1.1). 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 Octavius and others believe him to be, then he seems to have happily abandoned his reason in favor of passion. He declares: “Let Rome in Tiber melt and the wide arch / Of the ranged empire fall” (1.1.38–39). 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 struggles with the competing forces of reason and emotion, which are linked to Rome and Egypt, respectively.
Antony begins the play with some concern that he might “lose [him]self in dotage” (1.2.129). As the play progresses, his struggle to remain committed to reason over emotion grows increasingly intense. At one moment, he is the vengeful war hero whom Octavius 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. Although Antony dies believing himself a man of honor, discipline, and reason, our understanding of him is not nearly as straightforward. 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.
Complete Summary and Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra
- The Clash of Civilizations
Antony and Cleopatra dramatizes a key historical moment in the conflict between two great civilizations: Rome and Egypt, which may be construed in terms of “West” and “East,” respectively. This conflict is a matter of military might, but it is also an ideological conflict wrapped up in competing values and sensibilities. Significantly, the values Shakespeare attributes to each civilization must be understood as historically linked to Elizabethan England. It is from that particular historical vantage that, for example, Rome becomes the civilization defined by a preoccupation with law, order, and conquest. Meanwhile, Egypt is a land associated with aesthetic and sensual pleasure. In contrast to the Roman obsession with duty, Egypt is a land ruled by appetite and passion. Whereas the Romans pride themselves on sobriety and self-control, the Egyptians enjoy lavish feasts, music, and unbridled sexuality. Finally, in opposition to Rome’s obsession with masculinity, Egypt is a feminized place where gender boundaries aren’t rigorously policed. The chief emblem of Rome is the geographical breadth of the empire itself, expanding in ways that consolidate more and more power in the hands of a ruling elite. By contrast, the chief emblem of Egypt is the Nile River, whose seasonal flooding symbolizes excess and fertility.
In the play, the opposition between Rome and Egypt is represented by the differences between Octavius and Cleopatra. Octavius embodies all the traditionally Roman virtues, including both a sense of duty to the empire and an ambitious drive to accrue more power to himself through military prowess. Octavius’s concerns throughout the play are certainly imperial: he means to invade foreign lands to invest them with traditions and sensibilities of his own. By contrast, Cleopatra is as excessive in her passions as the Nile itself. Emotionally mercurial and prone to theatrics, her allegiance seems always to align with the pursuit of excitement and pleasure. Though the clash between Octavian Rome and Cleopatran Egypt plays out in physical conflicts, Shakespeare depicts the clash most powerfully through Antony. Indeed, his internal conflict represents, in miniature, the conflict between two civilizations with diametrically opposed values. It is thus through Antony’s psyche that West meets East. In the end, though, and despite Octavius’s military triumph and Antony’s suicide, West cannot decisively conquer East. Cleopatra’s suicide flouts Octavius’s desire to possess her, suggesting that the East will persevere as a visible and unconquerable counterpoint to the West.
Complete Summary and Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra
- The Definition of Honor
The concept of honor arises again and again throughout Antony and Cleopatra, often with competing values attached. Thus, just as the play dramatizes a clash between civilizations, it also represents a conflict over the definition of honor. The predominant notion of honor that appears in the play is associated with the Romans. Early in the play, for instance, Octavius laments Antony’s decline from his former glory, explicitly framing this decline as a loss of honor: “It wounds thine honor that I speak it now” (1.5.79). For Octavius, the wound to Antony’s honor is a matter of his decline from a great hero to an abased lover. Antony’s dishonor is therefore about his passion for Cleopatra, which Octavius sees as a form of emasculation. Antony implicitly affirms this link between honor and masculinity when he decides to go to war with Octavius. As he tells his new wife, Octavia: “If I lose mine honor, / I lose myself” (3.4.23–25). Octavius has insulted Antony by not consulting with him before going to war with Pompey and imprisoning Lepidus. These acts have wounded Antony’s honor, and the only way to heal the wound and restore his honor is to assert himself in battle.
The Romans’ masculine ideal of honor comes under scrutiny at several moments in the play. For example, consider the scene where Pompey rejects Menas’s idea about assassinating the triumvirs while they are celebrating a new peace deal on board Pompey’s ship. Pompey tells Menas: “Thou must know / ‘Tis not my profit that does lead mine honor; / Mine honor it” (2.7.88–90). Pompey claims to privilege his honor over the profit he would gain by assassinating the triumvirs and assuming ultimate power for himself. But though he frames his decision as an abstract matter of honor, it’s clear that he isn’t expressly against the act of assassination. As Pompey tells Menas, he would have approved of the killing had his servant executed the plan without telling him in advance? In this way, Shakespeare suggests that Pompey’s notion of honor is about plausible deniability, which means it’s ultimately about optics. Elsewhere, Cleopatra makes the same point with more explicit force: “Good now, play one scene / Of excellent dissembling, and let it look / Like perfect honor” (1.3.94–96). Ever the actress, Cleopatra makes the cheeky implication that honor is ultimately little more than a convincing performance.
- Love vs. Duty:
The central conflict of the play revolves around Antony’s struggle to reconcile his love for Cleopatra with his responsibilities as a Roman leader. Cleopatra symbolizes the alluring power of love and desire, while Rome represents duty, honor, and political obligation.
- Power and Politics:
The play explores how personal relationships influence political power. Antony’s political downfall is tied to his emotional entanglement with Cleopatra, while Caesar’s rise to power is marked by his cold, calculating nature.
- Tragic Heroism:
Antony’s tragic flaw is his inability to maintain the balance betweenlove and duty. His downfall is portrayed as both inevitable and deeply human, evokingpity as he succumbs to the complexities of his desires.
- Cultural Clash:
Rome and Egypt represent two opposing forces. Rome stands for control, reason, and masculinity, whereas Egypt is associated with indulgence, sensuality, and femininity. Antony’s failure to navigate between these worlds contributes to his tragedy.
- Female Power:
Cleopatra is portrayed as a powerful and complex figure. She embodies both feminine allure and political acumen, controlling much of the action through her influence over Antony and her own strategic choices.
Complete Summary and Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra
Literary Devices : Symbols
- Shape-Changing Clouds
In act 4, scene 14, Antony likens his shifting sense of self to a cloud that changes shape as it tumbles across the sky. Soon after his decisive defeat in battle with Octavius, Antony addresses his attendant, Eros: “Sometime we see a cloud that’s dragonish, / A vapor sometime like a bear or lion, / A towered citadel, a pendant rock” (4.14.3–5). It isn’t clear at first why Antony is remarking on something as remote as the shapes of clouds, an activity more readily associated with the imaginative games of children. But Antony soon reveals the link, declaring: “My good knave Eros, now thy captain is / Even such a body. Here I am Antony, / Yet cannot hold this visible shape” (4.14.16–18). Just as a cloud morphs from one shape into another, Antony has gone from being a legendary conqueror to a debased victim. But the point here isn’t just that Antony has changed; it’s that he has become changeable. When he stood firmly in the service of Rome, Antony relished the reassuring solidity of his identity as a soldier and general. But now that he has fallen under Cleopatra’s sway, his sense of identity has become as “indistinct / As water is in water” (4.14.13–14).
- The Spirit of Hercules
Act 4, scene 3, dramatizes a brief but chilling incident in which two anonymous soldiers hear a strange noise and interpret it as the spirit of Hercules. Throughout the play, Antony is associated with the mythical figure of Hercules, from whom Antony’s family claimed to descend. When Cleopatra earlier called Antony “Herculean” (1.3.103), she did so in gentle mockery of this claim. Elsewhere, Antony implicitly refers to himself as Hercules when he complains that “the shirt of Nessus is upon me” (4.12.48). Nessus is the name of a centaur Hercules mortally wounded, and who deceived Hercules’s wife into giving her husband his bloodied shirt. The shirt acted as a poison that drove Hercules to madness. These references indicate that Antony and his followers believe the spirit of this great hero is with him—no doubt a great confidence booster. In act 4, scene 3, however, the soldiers, worried that they will suffer a defeat in the battle to come, hear a mysterious music that they view as an ominous sign: “’Tis the god Hercules, whom Antony loved, / Now leaves him” (4.3.21–22). Though Antony may once have had the gods on his side, the time of his good fortune has come to an end.
- The Basket of Figs and Snakes
One of the most memorable symbols in the play appears in its final moments, when an anonymous “Countryman” (sometimes known as a “Clown”) delivers to Cleopatra a basket filled with figs, which in turn conceal several deadly snakes known as asps. This basket serves as a multilayered symbol. Most immediately, it’s a symbol of Cleopatra’s desire to maintain control of her own fate. Whereas Octavius attempts to prevent her suicide, she outmaneuvers him by procuring this basket full of venomous asps. Significantly, the asp is associated with the Nile, that famous river that functions as the symbol par excellence of Egyptian fertility and excess. Cleopatra, who shares the Nile’s tendency to overflow its own banks, adopts the asp as a prop for her final and most magnificent performance. As she lifts one snake, then another, to her breast, they become her children, and she becomes a common wet nurse: “Dost thou not see my baby at my breast, / That sucks the nurse asleep?” (5.2.368–69). In taking on this domestic role, Cleopatra once again asserts her sexuality, which is further symbolized by the presence of figs—a fruit that has long been a symbol for female fertility.
Complete Summary and Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra
The use of Motifs:
Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes. In the play, the playwright uses some motifs such as:
- Soothsaying and Prophecy
Antony and Cleopatra frequently references the Egyptian practice of consulting with soothsayers to glimpse a picture of what’s to come. In act 1, scene 2, Cleopatra’s attendants ask the court Soothsayer to read their fortunes. He offers up humorously bland prophecies, concluding that Charmian and Iras share the same fortune: their pasts will prove better than their futures, and they will outlive their mistress. Though Charmian will outlive Cleopatra by a matter of seconds, Iras will in fact precede her mistress in death. Later consultations with the Soothsayer will, however, yield up true fortunes. For instance, in act 2, scene 3, Antony consults with the Soothsayer after negotiating with Octavius, and he makes two predictions that will come true: that Antony will return to Egypt, and that Octavius’s fortune will rise higher than his. Finally in act 4, scene 12, Scarus laments how “[t]he augurs” refuse to reveal their prophecies (4.12.5). Even so, he notes that they must know, since they “look grimly / And dare not speak their knowledge” (4.12.6–7). For an audience familiar with the historical events being dramatized on the stage, these prophecies confirm the tragedy to come and thereby amplify the play’s pathos.
Complete Summary and Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra
Fortune and Chance
Closely linked to the motif of soothsaying and prophecy are the play’s numerous references to fortune and chance. These references arise most frequently in relation to the contest between Antony and Octavius. The play reflects a growing sense that Octavius’s fortunes are rising as Antony’s fall. Shakespeare first indicates this dynamic when Antony asks the Egyptian Soothsayer, “whose fortunes shall rise higher, Caesar’s or mine?” The Soothsayer immediately responds, “Caesar’s” (2.3.19–21). Indeed, Shakespeare portrays Octavius as a man who’s got fortune on his side and knows it. Octavius implies as much when addressing his attendants, insisting that they mustn’t be too “troubled with the time” and should instead “let determined things to destiny / Hold unbewailed their way” (3.7.94–97). Enobarbus affirms Octavius’s sense of self-confidence when explaining to Antony why his fellow triumvir refuses to fight him in single combat: “He thinks, being twenty times of better fortune, / He is twenty men to one” (3.2.4–5). Though Octavius’s rising fortunes are clear, Antony remains in denial, believing that Cleopatra has stacked the cards in Octavius’s favor in a game of chance: “she . . . has / Packed cards with Caesar and false-played my glory / Unto an enemy’s triumph” (4.14.22–24).
- Female Sexuality and Emasculation
Male characters in the play often rail against the power of female sexuality, which they repeatedly link to the threat of emasculation. Most often, they cite Cleopatra’s open and unapologetic sexuality as being responsible for Antony’s decline. The play opens with Philo making just such a connection, complaining that Antony’s “captain’s heart,” which once used to engage in “the scuffles of great fights,” now “reneges all temper / And is become the bellows and the fan / To fool a gypsy’s lust” (1.1.6–10). This concern about emasculation comes up again and again in the play, almost always relating to Antony’s affair with Cleopatra, whose “lust” is believed to warp the minds and judgment of all men—including “holy priests” and even the “great Caesar,” whom she made “lay his sword to bed” (2.2.280, 267). Clearly, Cleopatra’s sexuality is a threat to Roman masculinity. In the world of the play, the only way to for emasculated men to recuperate their masculinity is to exert control over female sexuality. Hence why Octavius wants to keep Cleopatra alive. If he can possess her legendary beauty and put it on display like a personal trophy, he will strengthen his legitimacy as the sole ruler of the new Roman Empire.
Characters in Antony and Cleopatra
Mark Antony
A once fierce and feared general who rules the Roman Empire along with the two other triumvirs: Octavius Caesar and Lepidus. When the play opens, Antony has neglected his duties as a ruler in order to live in Egypt, where he carries on a highly visible love affair with Queen Cleopatra. His loyalty is divided between the Roman and Egyptian worlds; he is torn between the sense of duty and the desire to seek pleasure, between reason and passion. While he feels the need to reaffirm the honor that has made him a celebrated Roman hero, he is also madly in love with Cleopatra.
Cleopatra
The queen of Egypt and Antony’s lover. A highly attractive woman who once seduced Julius Caesar, Cleopatra delights in the thought that she has caught Antony like a fish. In matters of love, as in all things, Cleopatra favors high drama: her emotions are as volatile as they are theatrical, and she always gives a top-notch performance. Although she tends to make a spectacle of her emotions, one cannot doubt the genuine nature of her love for Antony. Shakespeare makes clear that the queen does love the general, even if her loyalty is sometimes misplaced.
Octavius Caesar
The nephew and adopted son of Julius Caesar. Octavius rules the Roman Empire with Antony and Lepidus. Relations between Octavius and Antony are strained throughout the play, for the young triumvir believes that Antony squanders his time and neglects his duties while in Egypt. Ambitious and extremely pragmatic, Octavius lacks Antony’s pedigree as a general, but his careful and stoic reasoning enables him to avoid Antony’s tendency toward heroic or romantic folly. Destined to be the first Roman emperor (later renamed Octavius Augustus), he symbolizes “Western” values in the play, which stand opposed to the exotic lures of Cleopatra’s “East.”
Complete Summary and Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra
Enobarbus
Antony’s most loyal supporter and advisor. Worldly and cynical, Enobarbus is friendly with the subordinates of both Pompey and Octavius, yet he stays faithful to his master even after Antony makes grave political and military missteps. He abandons Antony only when the general appears to have given up on himself.
Marcus Aemilius Lepidus
The third member of the triumvirate of Rome and the weakest, both politically and personally. Lepidus’s rather desperate attempts to keep the peace between Octavius and Antony fail when Octavius imprisons him after the defeat of Pompey.
Pompey
The son of a great general who was one of Julius Caesar’s partners in power. Pompey is young and popular with the Roman people, and he possesses enough military might to stand as a legitimate threat to the triumvirs. He fancies himself honorable for refusing to allow one of his men to kill the unsuspecting Octavius, Antony, and Lepidus when they are his guests.
Octavia
Octavius Caesar’s sister. Octavius marries Octavia off to Antony to cement an alliance between the two triumvirs. She is a victim of Antony’s deception, and her meekness, purity, and submission make her the paradigm of Roman womanhood—and Cleopatra’s opposite.
Charmian and Iras
Cleopatra’s faithful attendants.
The Soothsayer
An Egyptian fortune-teller who follows Antony to Rome and predicts that his fortune will always pale in comparison to Octavius’s.
Dolabella
One of Octavius Caesar’s officers. Dolabella is assigned to guard the captive Cleopatra.
Agrippa
One of Octavius Caesar’s officers. Agrippa leads the retreat from Antony’s unexpectedly powerful forces.
Camidius
A general in Antony’s army. After the battle in which Antony follows Cleopatra’s lead and flees, Camidius surrenders and defects to Octavius’s side.
Ventidius
A Roman soldier under Antony’s command. Ventidius leads the legions to victory against the kingdom of Parthia. Although a competent fighter, he cautiously decides not to push his troops further into battle for fear that winning too much glory would sour his relationship with Antony.
Scarus
A brave young soldier serving under Antony. Scarus is seriously wounded in the battle against Octavius’s army, but he begs for the opportunity to earn more battle scars.
Proculeius
One of Octavius’s soldiers, who proves untrustworthy.
Diomedes
Cleopatra’s servant. She employs Diomedes to bring to Antony the message that she has not committed suicide but is still alive.