Antony and Cleopatra | Antony
In the first essay John Draper provides a psychological portrait of Antony, arguing that the Roman general becomes the victim of his own emtional struggle bebwen his duty to Octavius Caesar and his fascination wth the "idles" of Cleopatra. In the second essay J. Leeds Barroll argues that Antony refuses to be ruled by other characters' ideas of honor.
J. Leeds Barroll describes Mark Antony as "one of Shakespeare's most complexly imagined tragic heroes," and indeed, scholarly response to Antony has been various. Barrott characterizes him as lacking in conventional ideas of "social responsibility"—Antony does not, for example, feel the duty toward Rome that characters such as Octavius Caesar and Enobarbus feel he should. Nor does he feel ashamed when he neglects Roman politics or when he indulges himself in Egypt. Barroll notes that Antony does, however, feel ashamed when he flees the fighting at Actium; thus Barroll concludes that...
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