illustration of Antony and Cleopatra facing each other with a snake wrapped around their necks

Antony and Cleopatra

by William Shakespeare

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Antony and Cleopatra

"Fleshpots of Egypt" in Antony and Cleopatra refers to the temptation and moral decay Antony experiences due to his relationship with Cleopatra. Although the phrase does not appear in the play, it...

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Antony and Cleopatra

In an interview with Cleopatra, you could ask about the challenges of holding power as a woman in a patriarchal society, her relationships with powerful men, and the cultural tensions in Egypt....

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Antony and Cleopatra

Dryden's All for Love differs from Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra in its focus and characterization. Dryden emphasizes the personal trials of love and lust, portraying Antony and Cleopatra as...

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Antony and Cleopatra

The setting of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra alternates between Rome, Egypt, and several battlefields. The play follows Antony's journey to Egypt, where he falls in love with Cleopatra, and the...

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Antony and Cleopatra

Tragic elements in Antony and Cleopatra include the suicidal deaths of the protagonists, reflecting the inevitable fate that overshadows them. Antony's tragic flaw is his obsession with Cleopatra,...

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Antony and Cleopatra

In Act 1, Scene 5 of Antony and Cleopatra, Shakespeare uses figurative devices like hyperbole, metaphor, personification, and apostrophe to highlight the theme of love's intensity and complexity....

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Antony and Cleopatra

In Antony and Cleopatra, Shakespeare contrasts Rome and Egypt to highlight differing values and lifestyles. Rome represents order, duty, and political ambition, while Egypt symbolizes luxury,...

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Antony and Cleopatra

Cleopatra is initially attracted to Antony because he is a strong, handsome, virile man, but mainly because he has such great power. He is one of the rulers of most of the known world. Antony is...

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Antony and Cleopatra

The generated response provides several good examples of Antony’s arrogance in Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra. Each of these quotations reveals Antony’s pride and self-focus, his overconfidence...

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Antony and Cleopatra

I think that Shakespeare portrays her as a character somewhat in the middle of victim and predator.  One could call her a victim in that Shakespeare's Cleopatra truly cares for Antony and...

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Antony and Cleopatra

Shakespeare wrote Antony and Cleopatra around 1605–1606, and it was first performed in London in 1607. Antony and Cleopatra is written in verse and prose, and the characters of Antony and Cleopatra...

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Antony and Cleopatra

Hamlet and Antony are tragic heroes due to their elevated status and personal flaws. Hamlet, a prince, is indecisive, delaying his revenge on Claudius, which leads to multiple deaths. Antony, a...

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Antony and Cleopatra

In Antony and Cleopatra, Shakespeare contrasts Octavius Caesar and Mark Antony to explore themes of power, love, and downfall. Caesar is depicted as cunning and calculating, while Antony is impulsive...

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Antony and Cleopatra

Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra" is one of the more historically accurate of Shakespeare's plays.  His original audience would have been quite familiar with the events presented in the...

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Antony and Cleopatra

In Act IV scene 1 Antony says the following of Lepidus: "ANTONY: Octavius, I have seen more days than you: And, though we lay these honors on this man, To ease ourselves of divers slanderous...

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Antony and Cleopatra

Shakespeare uses imagery and diction to reveal Antony and Cleopatra. If you look at the words and images that are used to describe Antony, or man, they are typically structured and civilized words...

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Antony and Cleopatra

Octavius Caesar is self-assured and cunning, so he is able to take advantage of the weaknesses of others. Octavius Caesar lived up to his name.  As the promising young heir to Julius Caesar,...

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Antony and Cleopatra

My favorite lines in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra come at the very end of the play, in Act V, Scene 2, when Cleopatra is committing suicide by applying two poisonous snakes, or asps, to her...

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Antony and Cleopatra

To distill the opinion of A.C. Bradley, one of the most influential Shakespearean scholars of the late Victorian era, on the character of Cleopatra (as revealed in his Oxford Lecture on Antony and...

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Antony and Cleopatra

The audience's first impression of Cleopatra and her empire in Antony and Cleopatra is one of unrestrained emotion, luxury, magnificence, and improvidence. This provides a contrast to the austerity,...

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Antony and Cleopatra

The conventions in Shakespearean tragedy are largely the same as those identified by Aristotle. In Shakespeare, as in Aristotle's Poetics, a tragedy has a sympathetic hero who is of noble birth,...

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Antony and Cleopatra

Octavia is essentially caught in the middle of a political power struggle between Antony, her husband, and Caesar, her husband. She is a sympathetic character, though the audience mostly hears of...

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Antony and Cleopatra

Octavius does not really develop all that much as a character in Antony and Cleopatra. The main reason for this is because he has been seized by the utterly ruthless, single-minded pursuit of...

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Antony and Cleopatra

Cleo envies the horse for having Antony sitting on it. She imagines him speaking to her, and she remembers what he said to her in the past.

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Antony and Cleopatra

In Act III of the play, Antony and Cleopatra are fighting Octavian, now called Caesar Augustus, for control of the eastern Roman Empire. Their fleet has been destroyed, and now they face...

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Antony and Cleopatra

The chorus, as a dramatic device, originates with the Greek theatre.  As Enotes states: The Greek chorus comments on themes, and shows how an ideal audience might react to the drama. The...

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Antony and Cleopatra

I recently answered a similar question regarding the clash between Egypt and Rome, which might relate somewhat to your question (see the answer on enotes in the Antony and Cleopatra group). Antony...

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Antony and Cleopatra

One very direct example comes in Act 2 Scene 5.  It begins at the opening of the scene, as Cleopatra seeks a partner in a game of pool (billiards), but momentarily changes her mind with this...

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Antony and Cleopatra

Antony, in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, is portrayed as a once-great general whose judgment and effectiveness wane due to his infatuation with Cleopatra. His leadership is compromised by...

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Antony and Cleopatra

The visions of war in The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra and Henry V will have some similarities but also a number of notable differences. Let's look at these two plays to help you answer your...

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Antony and Cleopatra

In the play, Antony and Caesar are developed as contrasting characters. Antony is portrayed as a loyal and passionate follower of Caesar, eventually becoming a shrewd and ambitious leader himself....

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Antony and Cleopatra

Antony is a hero of Rome. He stood up for Julius Caesar during his reign, and in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, he avenged Caesar and Rome against Caesar's assassins Brutus and Cassius. He is a...

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Antony and Cleopatra

Cleopatra was a strong woman who was in an extremely difficult position and tried to use the tools available to her to maintain her precarious grasp on power as long as she could.  The thing...

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Antony and Cleopatra

In the first scene, Antony and Cleopatra are arguing about Antony’s loyalties.  Is Antony loyal to her, or to Rome?  Antony is having an affair with Cleopatra, but he is married to...

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