Mark Antony

A venerated Roman general and confidante of Julius Caesar, Mark Antony is defeated by Caesar's nephew, Caesar Octavius, in the battle of Actium. When defeat is imminent, Mark Antony flees to Egypt to rule beside his lover, Egypt's queen, Cleopatra. When the play starts, he has been in Egypt for ten years. [These events are historically accurate, though of course the characters' emotions and personal motivations are from Dryden's imagination.] He is the protagonist of the play. However, it is not his actions that move the plot so much as his indecisiveness about whether he should take two actions: leaving Cleopatra and returning to the Roman Empire. He makes several decisions and takes several actions throughout the play, but all of them are inspired by a central question: Should he leave Cleopatra or stay with her?

Mark Antony is the hero of the play as well; the...