Shakespeare’s PLOT STRUCTURE of Antony and Cleopatra: An Analysis with Historical Perspective

Shakespeare’s PLOT STRUCTURE of Antony and Cleopatra: An  Analysis with Historical Perspective

The relationship between Egypt and Rome in Antony and Cleopatra is central to understanding the plot, as the dichotomy allows the reader to gain more insight into the characters, their relationships, and the ongoing events that occur throughout the play. Shakespeare emphasizes the differences between the two nations with his use of language and literary devices, which also highlight the different characterizations of the two countries by their own inhabitants and visitors. Literary critics have also spent many years developing arguments concerning the "masculinity" of Rome and the Romans and the "femininity" of Egypt and the Egyptians. In traditional criticism of Antony and Cleopatra, “Rome has been characterized as a male world, presided over by the austere Caesar, and Egypt as a female domain, embodied by a Cleopatra who is seen to be as abundant, leaky, and changeable as the Nile”. In such a reading, male and female, Rome and Egypt, reason and emotion, and austerity and leisure are treated as mutually exclusive binaries that all interrelate with one another. The straightforwardness of the binary between male Rome and female Egypt has been challenged in later 20th-century criticism of the play: “In the wake of feminist, poststructuralist, and cultural-materialist critiques of gender essentialism, most modern Shakespeare scholars are inclined to be far more skeptical about claims that Shakespeare possessed a unique insight into a timeless ‘femininity.’”. As a result, critics have been much more likely in recent years to describe Cleopatra as a character that confuses or deconstructs gender than as a character that embodies the feminine.

The play is structured like a classical tragedy. The opening scenes are largely introductory, presenting the setting, the Themes, the major characters, the conflict, and the fatal flaw (hamartia) of Antony - his passion for Cleopatra. The rising action really begins at the end of the third scene of the first act when Antony decides he must temporarily return to Rome, but pledges his love and faithfulness to Cleopatra before his departure. The rising action builds through Antony's marriage and desertion of Octavia and his return to Cleopatra, who convinces him to fight Caesar in a naval engagement.The climax occurs with Antony's loss to Caesar at Actium and his subsequent total loss of self-respect. From this point forward, he succumbs to his passion, acting like a fool for the quixotic queen, who toys with Antony and his emotions. The falling action centers round Antony's complete defeat by Caesar and his departure from Cleopatra. The resolution comes when Antony falls on his own sword and later dies before Cleopatra. She follows him into death by committing suicide herself, completing the tragedy.

The play can really be divided into two main parts. In the first half of the play, Antony remains rational and strives to achieve a balance between the conflicting demands of his Roman military position and his weakness for Cleopatra and things Egyptian. When he deserts Octavia and returns to Cleopatra, however, he falls totally under her control. Throughout the second half of the play, Shakespeare charts Antony's futile attempts to do anything outside of Cleopatra's spell. Although the play defies the unifying traits of time and place, having several settings over several weeks, the play is closely held together by the central characters of Antony and Cleopatra. Even when they do not appear on stage during the scene, they are usually openly discussed by the characters on stage or their presence is felt. The constant theme of Antony's destructive passion, which is developed throughout the play, also serves to unify the drama into a tightly woven structure that holds the attention of the audience.

After defeating Brutus and Cassius, following the assassination of Julius Caesar, Mark Antony becomes one of the three rulers of the Roman Empire, together with Octavius Caesar and Lepidus, and is responsible for the eastern part of the empire. He falls in love with Cleopatra, the Queen of Egypt, and settles in Alexandria. However, he is compelled to return to Rome when the empire is threatened by the rebellion of Sextus Pompey, the son of Pompey, who had been defeated by Julius Caesar. As his wife has just died Antony marries Octavius’ sister, Octavia, in an attempt to heal the rift between the two emperors. They make peace with Pompey. When Cleopatra hears about Antony’s marriage she flies into a jealous rage but knows that Antony does not love Octavia. Antony goes to Athens but when war breaks out between Caesar and Pompey, Antony sends Octavia back to Rome and returns to Egypt. Caesar is incensed with Antony’s behaviour and he declares war on both Antony and Cleapatra. When the Romans arrive Antony is offered a choice of how to fight and, despite being renowned as the world’s greatest soldier, he chooses to fight on sea. The Egyptian navy is inadequate and when Cleopatra’s navy turns and flees, Antony follows them and Caesar defeats him. Cleopatra goes to her tomb and sends a message to Antony that she is dead. Antony is devastated and decides to kill himself. He botches the suicide and wounds himself without dying. His followers take him to Cleopatra’s tomb, where he dies in her arms. Cleopatra’s life is in tatters. Having lost Antony and being at the mercy of Caesar, she resolves to commit suicide. She has someone bring her some poisonous snakes and incites them to bite her. Caesar arrives just after her death and orders that the two lovers be buried together.

Antony and Cleopatra never intended to be a tragedy, instead Shakespeare gave the illusion of the tragedy as the two protagonists set out to become the heroes of the play and neither succeeded. Antony and Cleopatra are seen to have a passionate love for each other up till their demise as both are seen ending their lives for the other. Although the couple was seen as a pair that could not live without the other, it does not take much to be able to point out that the basis of their relationship lies on manipulation and lust. Enobarbus was able to see this as he never believed their love was true but instead a contradiction. Cleopatra always wanted Antony to be in the palm of her hands, to always be in control of his emotions and would thus manipulate him by dancing whenever he was sad or fake a sickness if he were to be happy. This makes Antony only chase after Cleopatra even more in a never-ending cycle. They both try to be much more than they are and show their enemies and the world that they are invincible. Rather than them sacrificing themselves for the other, the two protagonists set out to become the hero of the play and to show that being the last one standing, no hand will bring them down but their own. They did not die for love but for the fame that would come behind that sacrifice and in the end are seen as being noble and self-sacrificing. It does not end in a tragedy but in a bittersweet and almost happy ending. Both of the lovers’ fates are interwoven yet they deceive the other in a fight for dominance that Cleopatra wins for a while as the audience and other characters throughout the play know completely what is going on in the play filled with dramatic irony. Enobarbus once again knows of Antony’s unrelenting attachment to Cleopatra and Cleopatra’s mind games while the audience knows Cleopatra isn’t dead as Antony kills himself over her. They both spent their whole lives trying to achieve higher fame than the other and became notorious for their lust. They are their own Gods and live separate from those that they call normal and watch. The play progresses into the protagonists decline in fame, leaving them to pursue a sure way into that immortality they coveted. They become immortals in death along with even more fame and has as well achieved their goal from the beginning. They die in the name of their love when they really die in the name of fame. A status of nobility higher than us and pity for the tragedy that is their relationship. The tragedy is Antony and Cleopatra’s own happy ending as death was a small price to pay to become real gods. They proved that the only death that could touch them were by their own hand, further increasing that godly power they received from the people. Now they are apart from those they watched, now they are above them, and now they will be worshipped as gods.