Antony and Cleopatra

With Antony and Cleopatra, William Shakespeare engages in a story centered on power—the control and authority to command nations. In the story, many of the main characters, such as Octavius Caesar and Mark Anthony, struggle to gain and maintain their grasp of authority. Yet, unlike in past texts we have read where control and influence are gained through acts of honor and ethical means, these characters attempt to gain their power by any way possible. These “Triple-turn’d whore[s]” (Shakespeare 2008: 280) spout promises only to break them at the nearest convenience. This paper will analyze the acts of betrayal and deceit used by the characters to gain their control and what it reveals about the author’s personal beliefs on rulers. Shakespeare argues that the only way to gain and maintain power is through betrayal and deception. In this essay, I will first argue that Shakespeare shows that there is little value in…

she expected to win dominion over the Roman world.” Cleopatra VII was the final Ptolemaic queen of Egypt and, most likely, one of the most influential and powerful of her time. Not only was she one of the first queens of the Macedonian era to know many languages in order to avoid translators during her rule, she also used powerful tools such as likening herself to the Goddess Isis to gain respect of her people. Despite all of these things, one of the strongest assets that Cleopatra used to…

the play starts when Antony lives in Egypt with his love Cleopatra. Anthony lives a luxurious life in Egypt. He eats massive feast, drink wine all night long, and evens dance to the music being played until morning, where he sleeps so he can those events the following night. Although Antony enjoys his time in Egypt, problems in the Roman Empire like rebellions and civil war draw him back to Rome. Not only that, his friend Ceaser is mad at Antony for breaking his sworn promise that when needed,…

In Antony and Cleopatra, displayed was a powerful love between two people at the climax of their trials and tribulations. Plutarch ‘Life of Antonius’ is the primary source, and Shakespeare has combined this factual evidence together along with fiction and drama to formulate a play that is different in terms of proposition, structure and notability. In the first century AD, less than one hundred years after Antony’s death ; but just in time to hear his grandfather’s personal experiences…

It is far more tragic than comedic. The play in itself has no defined “happy” moments but rather is more tragic with the amount of people murdered throughout. As a history, this play also falls short of that genre due to many historical inaccuracies. As stated in class, Antony and Cleopatra can be considered more historically accurate than Richard III. Is Richard III a tragedy? It can be with the main character’s murderous death concluding the play. In all, Much Ado About Nothing is easier…

people of Rome did not want Cleopatra as a queen after Julius Caesar died. Cleopatra wanted to take over Rome after Caesar died, but the people would not let her do that and forced her to flee. The Romans did not want a queen in power especially Cleopatra. Cleopatra was a ruler alongside her twin brother in Egypt, when Caesar came over from Rome to answer a dying wish of her father to look after the two and make sure everything is going well. Caesar brought her back to Rome as his second wife,…

In the play Macbeth, William Shakespeare uses the Aristotelian definition of a tragic hero as a guideline for the characters and their tragedies. Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero is someone of nobility who has a tragic, fatal flaw. He believed that there are three characteristics of a tragic hero: Hamartia, hubris, and peripeteia. Hamartia is a tragic flaw that causes the downfall of a hero; hubris is excessive pride and disrespect for the natural order of things; peripeteia is the…

'The idea is to produce things that are as strange and mysterious to you as the first music you ever heard.' Brian Eno Brian Peter George Jean-Baptiste de La Salle Eno or, as more commonly known to the world, just Brian Eno, can be unbiasedly described as an iconic contemporary British artist. He began his music career with guitarist Anthony Grafton in 1968 in Maxwell Demon, and was influenced by such bands as The Velvet Underground (Independent.co.uk, 1998) his real legacy began in 1971, as a…

Central Thesis The main focus of this work is to provide a better understanding of how sexism could shape literary work and its responses as well as critiques. Through two main definitions of Anthony and Cleopatra such as "the fall of a great general" and "transcendental love" (Fitz, 297), the author of the reading explains how several critics have written adequately different responses over the years to the Shakespeare version of the story. Most of the approaches to the play have been depicted…

Cleopatra, the last known ruler of the Ptolemaic Dynasty, was the Macedonian Queen of Egypt. The Ptolemaic Dynasty was ruled by a line of Macedonian leaders. The dynasty lasted about 300 years. Cleopatra became the ruler of her country alongside with her younger brother, Ptolemy XIII, at very young ages. She was given the throne at the age of eighteen after the death of her father, Ptolemy XII, who had died from natural causes. Cleopatra and her brother co-ruled Egypt together. Stacy Schiff…