Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare (Character of Antony)

Antony and Cleopatra

by William Shakespeare

(Character of Antony) 

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”.