Antony and Cleopatra
by
William Shakespeare
(Character of Antony)
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Antony is first and foremost a Roman hero of
the first caliber. He won his position as one of the three leaders of the world
by vanquishing the treacherous Brutus and Cassius, who conspired to assassinate
his predecessor, Julius Caesar. He is descended from an ancient Roman family. In
his youth, he liked to drink too much, and he was a spendthrift. He continued
to exhibit these qualities for the rest of his life. He also has a generous
nature and a good-humored personality, and eventually he becomes a lieutenant
to Julius Caesar in Gaul. His troops like him, and he is courageous on the
battlefield. He becomes a chief deputy to Caesar, and eventually he is a
partner with him as consul in Rome.
Antony
makes his "second home" in Egypt. Antony's personality is much like
the land where he makes his home in his middle years. Antony seems to have
acquired a new interest in the pleasures of living because of his residing in
Egypt and because of his love for Cleopatra. He becomes a very troubled man
because he found himself torn between a desire to be with Cleopatra and an
equally strong desire to seek and maintain power in Rome.
His
impulsiveness and his inability to make decisions make him appear weak, but he
is not as weak as he appears. He is sensual, but he is also brave, and he
withstands adversity well. He is insecure about his age, to some extent, for he
worries about Cleopatra's fidelity, since he is older than she is.
He underestimates
his opponent, Octavius Caesar; he believes that his own vast experience and
courage on the field can make up for Octavius's inexperienced determination. He
finds ultimately that they do not. Throughout the play, Antony grapples with
the conflict between his love for Cleopatra and his duties to the Roman Empire.
In Act I, scene i, he engages Cleopatra in a conversation about the nature and
depth of their love, dismissing the duties he has neglected for her sake: “Let
Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide arch / Of the ranged empire fall” (I.i.35–36).
In the very next scene, however, Antony worries that he is about to “lose
[him]self in dotage” (I.ii.106) and fears that the death of his wife is only
one of the ills that his “idleness doth hatch” (I.ii.119). Thus, Antony finds
himself torn between the Rome of his duty and the Alexandria of his pleasure.
His
first mistake is letting himself be drawn into the world of Egypt and its
delights. He loses much popular support, because his devotion to Cleopatra
seems like disloyalty to Rome. His ever-increasing indecision is the mirror of
his inner struggle to find a balance between two worlds and two sets of values.
His adventurous attitude suggests that he attempts to enlarge his awareness of
what life can be.
He
often recalls the golden days of his own heroism, but now that he is entangled
in an affair with the Egyptian queen, his memories do little more than
demonstrate how far he has strayed from his ideal self. He points out to
Octavia, “If I lose my honor, / I lose myself. Better I were not yours / Than
yours so branchless”. Later, having suffered defeat at the hands of both Caesar
and Cleopatra, Antony returns to the imagery of the stripped tree as he
laments, “This pine is barked / That overtopped them all”. Antony chooses to
take his own life, an act that restores him to his brave and indomitable former
self. In suicide, Antony manages to convince himself and the world, that he is
“a Roman by a Roman / Valiantly vanquished”.
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