Antony and Cleopatra | 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.

Dualism in its various forms—contrast, paradox, irony--plays a significant role in Antony and Cleopatra. Peter Berek describes the play as one "in which mighty opposites meet, struggle, and embrace. Rome encounters Egypt, Reason feels emotion, Spirit wars with Flesh, Duty yields to Leisure." Richard G. Harrier contrasts Cleopatra—whom he sees as representative of Egypt, undisciplined fertility, and inconstancy—with Octavius Caesar—with whom he links Rome, order, and power. Cynthia Kolb Whitney focuses on the contrasts which exist between Rome and Egypt, asserting that the...

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