Antony and Cleopatra | Criticism

  • Overview

    In this introduction, Cohen places Antony and Cleopatra within its literary context, remarks on the dualism and eroticism that pervade the play, and notes that Shakespeare is asking us to consider whether heroic acts can survive in the "post-heroic world" of Octavius Caesar's Rome or in the "private terrain" of Antony and Cleopatra's love.

  • Language and Imagery

    In the first essay Daiches focuses on the rich poetic language of Antony and Cleopatra, arguing that imagery is present in the play not simply as a source of visual pleasure but also as a means of defining the various characters. In the second essay MacMullan examines the image of death that frequently appears in the play.

  • Dualism

    In the first essay Janet Adelman evaluates the dualistic vision that pervades the play, remarking on such paradoxes as the fact that characters' actions often fall far short of their elaborately poetic descriptions of one another, and that Antony and Cleopatra at last resort to death to keep their love alive. In the second essay Peter Berek locates the source of the play's dualism in the verbs "to do" and "to undo." He notes the play's frequent fixus on the paradox that "doing" or completing an action also ends it, or "undoes" action.

  • Rome Versus Egypt

    In the first essay Michael Platt begins by comparing the Republican Rome of Shakespeare's Coriolanus and Julius Caesar with the Roman Empire of Antony and Cleopatra. He concludes that in Antony and Cleopatra, both Rome and Egypt are in a state of decline. In the second brief essay, Larry Champion contends that the worlds of Egypt and Rome are "equally tainted."

  • 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.

  • Cleopatra

    In the first essay, L. J. Mills argues against critics who regard Antony as the play's tragic figure to the exclusion of Cleopatra. In the second essay Maurice Charney discusses Cleopatra from the point of view of other characters in the play.

  • Octavius

    In this essay Gordon Ross Smith evaluates five politicians in the play—Octavius, Antony, Lepidus, Cleopatra, and Pompey—and concludes that none of them can be regarded as ideal leaders according to the standards of Shakespeare's time.