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Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare.
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Antony and Cleopatra
by William Shakespeare
Scholars believe that Shakespeare wrote Antony and Cleopatra in late 1606 or early 1607, shortly after writing King Lear and Macbeth (also covered in WLA...
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Biography Essay"He was not of an age, but for all time." So wrote Ben Jonson in his dedicatory verses to the memory of William Shakespeare in 1623, and so we continue to affirm today. No other writer,...
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The English playwright, poet, and actor William Shakespeare (1564-1616) is generally acknowledged to be the greatest of English writers and one of the most extraordinary creators in human history.The ...
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Considered by critics, scholars, and the theater-going public the most important dramatist in the history of English literature, William Shakespeare occupies a unique position in the pantheon of great...
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"He was not of an age, but for all time." So wrote Ben Jonson in his dedicatory verses to the memory of William Shakespeare in 1623, and so we continue to affirm today. No other writer, in English or ...
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William Shakespeare's reputation is based primarily on his plays. With the partial exception of the Sonnets (1609), quarried since the early nineteenth century for autobiographical secrets allegedly ...
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In the following excerpt, Schanzer responds to critics who have considered Antony and Cleopatra to be "faultily constructed," arguing that the structural pattern of the work consists &#x...
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In the following essay, Fitz argues that numerous critical discussions of Antony and Cleopatra have been informed by sexist biases, with one of the most blatant misunderstandings being the inability t...
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In the following excerpt, Mack argues that Antony and Cleopatra "owes much, at least in its general outline, to the medieval tragic formula of the fall-of-princes and mirror-for-magistrates tra...
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In the following essay, originally delivered as a lecture at Queen's University in 1964, Doran discusses Shakespeare's use of hyperbolic language to characterize Antony, Cleopatra, and R...
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In the following excerpt, Hibbard discusses Shakespeare's use of language in Antony and Cleopatra, describing the play's style as "an astonishing union of the hyperbolical with th...
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In the following excerpt, Adelman examines parallels to the myth of Venus and Mars in Antony and Cleopatra, commenting that "[the significance of the mythological allusions in [the play] is not...
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In the following essay, Coates considers parallels between the Renaissance story of "The Choice of Hercules" and Antony and Cleopatra.
The importance of the 'Choice of Hercules&#x...
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In the following excerpt, Markels examines the opposition between private and public values symbolized by the conflict between Rome and Egypt in Antony and Cleopatra.
Up through the end of Act III, sc...
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In the following essay, Wells discusses the austerity that characterizes the Roman view of love and passion in Antony and Cleopatra. He comments: "Shakespeare suggests that the political world ...
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In the following essay, Barroll examines the way in which desire and its “strangeness” inform the characterization of Antony.
I
Mark Antony is one of Shakespeare's most complexly ...
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In the following essay, Simonds uses the study of Renaissance iconography as a tool to explore Antony and Cleopatra's characterization. Simonds emphasizes the ambivalence with which Antony and ...
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In the following essay, Wortham investigates the Renaissance emblem tradition that informs Antony and Cleopatra, and attempts to discern how the emblematic imagery operating in the text would have bee...
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In the following essay, King suggests that Shakespeare portrays competing images of the “penitent prostitute” in the characterization of Cleopatra, who resembles prostitute-saints of the...
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In the following essay, Levin studies three conundrums appearing in the negotiations of Cleopatra and Caesar, and examines how these episodes illuminate the battle of wits between the two characters. ...
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In the following essay, Lewis identifies a Christian analogue to Antony's character and argues that understanding this parallel puts into perspective the various attitudes professed in the play...
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In the following essay, Floyd-Wilson observes the correspondence between geography and gender that is often examined in the play (for example, the association of Egypt with femininity and Rome with ma...
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In the following essay, Payne traces Shakespeare's use of opposition throughout Antony and Cleopatra and demonstrates the way in which these oppositions structure the play. Payne stresses that ...
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In the following essay, Yachnin explores the parallels between Antony and Cleopatra's contrasting of Egyptian past with Roman future and the shift from an Elizabethan to a Jacobean style of rul...
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In the following essay, Kujawinska-Courtney analyzes the play's use of diegesis and mimesis and argues that the opposition between the two may be viewed as analogous to the play's theme ...
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In the following essay, Mack surveys the many polarities explored in Antony and Cleopatra and suggests that Shakespeare, in order to question logical expectations, deliberately refused to allow ascend...
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In the following essay, Turner examines Shakespeare's treatment of Rome in Antony and Cleopatra, suggesting that his view of the empire was fueled by an imaginative return to the “honour...
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In the following essay, Hume analyzes the way in which language functions in the play and demonstrates how Shakespeare used language in order to distinguish and develop the characters in Antony and Cl...
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In the following essay, Colie examines the play's use of Attic and Asiatic styles of speech, explaining that Atticism, the style preferred by Caesar, is characterized by plain, direct speech, w...
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In the following essay, Freeman uses the theory of cognitive metaphor to evaluate the figurative language found in Antony and Cleopatra.
Any approach to metaphor hoping to enhance centuries of scholar...
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In the following essay, Kalmey examines the Elizabethan conception of Octavius Caesar, and finds that Elizabethans praised Caesar as an ideal prince only after he was crowned emperor. Prior to this ev...
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In the following essay, Jankowski identifies the similarities and differences between Queen Elizabeth and Shakespeare's Cleopatra, and notes that although both women used their bodies for polit...
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In the following essay, Habib suggests that in Antony and Cleopatra, Shakespeare contrasted noble England and the white, virginal Queen Elizabeth with the torpor of Egypt and its black and wanton rule...
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In the following review, Carnegy offers a mostly favorable assessment of the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Antony and Cleopatra at Stratford-upon-Avon for the Summer-Winter 1999-200...
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In the following excerpted review of the Southmark Globe Theatre's all-male production of Antony and Cleopatra, directed by Giles Block, Potter praises many of the performances of the major cha...
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In the following excerpted review, Jackson comments on the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Antony and Cleopatra at Stratford-upon-Avon, directed by Steven Pimlott. In particular, Jack...
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In the following essay, originally delivered as a lecture in 1962, Blissett explores Antony and Cleopatra's use of dramatic irony, focusing in particular on the dramatic irony generated from th...
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In the following essay, Simmons explores the ways in which the structure and thematic interests of Antony and Cleopatra are reflective of elements of Shakespearean comedy.
Antony and Cleopatra is in t...
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In the following excerpt, Wilders surveys the structure, characters, themes, and language of Antony and Cleopatra.
The Question of Structure
Shifts of Location
The dramatic construction of Antony and ...
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In the following review of Michael Attenborough's 2002 Royal Shakespeare Company staging of Antony and Cleopatra, Fleming finds fault with the production's slow start and muddled enuncia...
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In the following review of the 2002 production of Antony and Cleopatra directed by Michael Attenborough at Stratford-upon-Avon, Gibson contends that Attenborough's extensive textual cuts highli...
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In the following review of the 2002 Royal Shakespeare Company staging of Antony and Cleopatra under the direction of Michael Attenborough, Hopkins contends that the production was “unfocused&#x...
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In the following essay, Wolf claims that the central conflict of Antony and Cleopatra involves the tension between change and permanence and examines Antony and Cleopatra's efforts to escape fr...
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In the following excerpt, Fawkner examines the oppositional pattern of “following and leaving” in Antony and Cleopatra, which he suggests defines the conceptual structure of the drama.
A...
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In the following essay, Baker examines the gender reversals of Antony and Cleopatra, contending that “Shakespeare figures movement out of one's own gender as a necessary and desirable, i...
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In the following essay, Yachnin views Antony and Cleopatra as a critique of absolutist loyalty to the divinely appointed sovereign.
What might Antony and Cleopatra tell us about English political cult...
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In the following excerpt, Lindley adapts Mikhail Bakhtin's concept of the carnivalesque to his discussion of Antony and Cleopatra, noting the play's comic subversion of the tragic and Eg...
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In the following essay, Sjöberg discusses Antony and Cleopatra as a drama of transformation derived from opposition and strife.
LEPIDUS.
But small to greater matters must give way.
ENOBARBUS.
...
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In the following essay, Mills attributes Cleopatra's personal tragedy to her amoral, equivocal, and egoistic nature.
Interpretations of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra have emphasized...
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In the following essay, Heffner examines Shakespeare's extensive use of messengers in Antony and Cleopatra, contending that “the messenger is a bit of necessary stage machinery which Sha...
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In the following essay, Kinney contends that Cleopatra is the human embodiment of Egypt and represents an all-inclusive potentiality that embraces the feminine and the masculine.
Cleopatra, like Falst...
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In the following essay, Bushman examines feminist readings of Cleopatra's character in Antony and Cleopatra and analyzes her status as the “tragic hero” of the play.
To the discer...
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In the following essay, Darraj concentrates on Shakespeare's efforts to fashion Cleopatra into a believable, sympathetic character.
The 19th century essayist and literary critic William Hazlitt...
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In the following review of the 1999 Globe Theatre production of Antony and Cleopatra directed by Giles Block, Morley, although not impressed with the overall production, praises it as the best he has ...
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In the following review of director Giles Block's 1999 all-male production of Antony and Cleopatra at the Globe Theatre, Gandrow admires the campy but nuanced performance of Mark Rylance as Cle...
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In the following review, Klein asserts the essential failure of director Bonnie J. Monte's comic staging of Antony and Cleopatra at the 2000 New Jersey Shakespeare Festival, noting its lack of ...
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In the following essay, Turner examines the theme of creativity in Antony and Cleopatra. The critic devotes particular attention to the relationship between Antony and Cleopatra; their attempt to devi...
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In the following excerpt, Macaulay reviews Michael Attenborough's 2002 Royal Shakespeare Company production of Antony and Cleopatra. The critic has high praise for Sinead Cusack's repres...
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In the following essay, Archer addresses racial and gender issues in Antony and Cleopatra in the context of classical and early modern writers' representations of Egypt as both a principal orig...
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In the following essay, Lindley argues that Antony and Cleopatra associates Octavius with the centralization and monopolization of trade—that it shows he wants, in effect, to be the sole propri...
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In the following excerpt, Loomba evaluates the play's dichotomies between East and West, Egypt and Rome, and Cleopatra and Octavius in terms of early modern English culture. The critic finds ma...
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In the following essay, Vanhoutte argues that Shakespeare's depiction of Antony's suicide precludes judgments of it as either ignoble or praiseworthy. Drawing on the writings of Donne an...
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In the following essay, Alfar reads Antony and Cleopatra as a critique of female modes of power, with particular emphasis on Rome's imperial, masculinist domination. Cleopatra exploits the erot...
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In the following review, Murray censures Sean Mathias, the director of the 1998 National Theatre production of Antony and Cleopatra, for his lack of respect for the play's poetry. He describes ...
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In the following excerpted review of Sean Mathias's 1998 National Theatre production of Antony and Cleopatra, Kellaway suggests that Alan Rickman and Helen Mirren are not credible as lovers. Sh...
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In the following review of Giles Block's 1999 production of Antony and Cleopatra at the Globe, Macaulay commends Mark Rylance's performance as Cleopatra for its liveliness and spontaneit...
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In the following excerpt, Duncan-Jones comments on two productions of Antony and Cleopatra. She expresses disappointment in the Royal Shakespeare Company's 1999 staging for its lack of connecti...
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In the following review of Stephen Pimlott's 1999 staging of Antony and Cleopatra for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Shuttleworth describes the performances of the four principal actors as ...
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In the following essay originally published in 1985, Neely argues that in Antony and Cleopatra "genre boundaries are . . . enlarged" to include "motifs, themes, and characterizati...
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In the following essay, Fisch considers archetypal patterns of love/war and fertility/death associated with Roman and Egyptian mythological allusions in Antony and Cleopatra. The critic concludes by e...
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In the following essay, MacKenzie suggests that Shakespeare constructed parallels between the eponymous characters of Antony and Cleopatra and figures from Roman mythology, only to abandon this classi...
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Rick Bowers, University of Alberta
Those critics of Antony and Cleopatra who touch on the subject of Caesar's involvement are usually brief and disparaging before moving on to consider the pri...
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Tragedy or Satire? How successful in either form do you find Anthony and Cleopatra"
A tragic play involves a character that falls from grace due to his or her own fatal flaw. A tragedy always elevate...
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The play Antony and Cleopatra illustrates the cultural differences between two societies. With the characters of Antony and Cleopatra being a microcosm of Rome and Egypt. Antony is an omnipotent Roman...
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"Antony and Cleopatra" shows the conflict between the "hardihood of the West" and the "luxury of the East" resulting in the eventual fall of the Roman republic, even as it rejoices in its triumph ov...
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The scene I am going to be looking at is act 1 scene 1, there are many different dramatic devices that can be used in this scene, and I believe them all to be very important, just as I view the first ...
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The play Antony and Cleopatra is no doubt about the diminishing of Antony as a result of his love for Cleopatra. Shakespeare portrays this through phases which are visualised and witnessed by; Antony ...
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The first scene is set in the Palace of Cleopatra in the city of Alexandria. The scene opens as a conversation develops between Philo and Demetrius who are Roman friends of Antony. By opening in the...
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Question
`Shakespeare doesn't organize his tragedy as a drama of love between Antony and Cleopatra, but as a drama of the rise and fall of Antony in the struggle for world leadership'. What is your v...
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Sex, manipulation, selfishness, obsession, and dramatic interactions are all present in "Antony and Cleopatra" and "The Letters of Abelard and Heloise." The roles of women in society and conceptions ...
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By changing the title of `Antony and Cleopatra' to `Cleopatra and her Antony' it would be stating that within the play Cleopatra is in control and Antony is a possession. Both during the period this...
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In the majority of Shakespeare's tragedies the protagonist will have a fatal flaw which inevitably leads to their demise. With Antony and Cleopatra being a tragedy this characteristic of a tragedy ca...
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Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra is different form the rest of his other plays. The setting of this tragedy is split between two places that are diametrically opposed geographically and symbolically...
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What impression of Antony do we form in act 1"
At the opening of the play, Antony is described in a critical speech in terms which contrast what he once was with what he has become. The brave gener...
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From Shakespeare play, Caesar's life moves through different phases, from that of a nervous triumvir to that of a Roman emperor. When he first started off, he is the adopted son of Julius Caesar, the ...
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From the opening lines of Demetrius in Act 1:1, it is clear the Romans' regard Antony as "a strumpet's fool", abandoning his military endeavours in Rome, while seeking pleasure in Cleopatra's domain. ...
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Shakespeare presents Rome and Egypt to the audience as complete opposites. He does this through visual and oral aids, in order to show the audience the conflict that Antony faces. Shakespeare makes th...
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Shakespeare's Use of Allusions
"Dido a dowdy, Cleopatra a gypsy, Helen and Hero hildings and harlots, Thisbe a grey eye or so, but not to the purpose." (Shakespeare,) This quote is from Mercutio, a c...
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In William Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra," the first part of this scene is Cleopatra missing Antony and wanting to see him, the second half of the scene is about Antony's message to Cleopatra, a...
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Antony and Cleopatra Book Notes is a free study guide on Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare. Browse the summary below:
Author Biography / Context of the Work
One-Page Plot S...
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Teaching Antony and Cleopatra
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Antony and Cleopatra Lesson Plans contain 140 pages of teaching material, including:
Antony and Cleopatra
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
Critical Essay by Ernest Schanzer
Tragedy or Satire? How successful in either form do you find Anthony and Cleopatra?
Antony and Cleopatra
