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William ShakespeareAntony and Cleopatra
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1607A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Literary Context: Shakespeare’s Tragedies
Antony and Cleopatra is one of William Shakespeare’s late tragedies, first performed around 1607-1608 CE. The play was written during the Jacobean Era (1603-1625), when King James I of England was on the throne and literary works began to explore darker themes such as crime, violence, and corruption. Shakespeare wrote many of his tragic plays during this period, including Othello (1604), King Lear (1606), Macbeth (1606), and Coriolanus (1608). Scholars have divided Shakespeare’s plays into several major genres: comedy, tragedy, history, and romance.
Antony and Cleopatra is typically considered a tragedy, despite the fact that it is based on Roman history. The classical definition of a tragedy is a story in which a noble or high-status character faces a crisis due to an error or “tragic flaw” in character (referred to using the Greek term hamartia). Shakespeare’s tragedies tend to follow this definition, although some critics have suggested that Shakespeare’s tragic protagonists do not fall entirely due to their own flaws but also because of the corruption and manipulation of evil forces in the world around them. Antony’s dramatic reversal of fortune and status conforms to this definition of tragedy, having been brought about by his own infatuation with Cleopatra and the political ambitions of Caesar.
Antony and Cleopatra is also notable as a potential sequel to Shakespeare’s earlier Roman tragedy, Julius Caesar (1599). Shakespeare’s primary historical source for these plays is the biographer Plutarch (46-119 CE), whose works were translated into English by Thomas North in 1579.
Historical Context: The End of Republican Rome
After centuries of governance as a republic, Octavius Caesar (also known as Octavian), the great-nephew of Julius Caesar, was granted the title Augustus and became the first Roman Emperor in 27 BC. The transition from republic to empire was precipitated by several major upheavals in Roman politics. Firstly, the Roman commander Julius Caesar first rose to power after successfully conquering Gaul (modern-day France). After returning to Rome, he defeated his enemies in a civil war and was named dictator in perpetuity in 44 BC, meaning that he would have total power in Rome until his death. However, Julius Caesar’s growing power was opposed by Cassius Longinus and Marcus Brutus who, along with many co-conspirators, assassinated Caesar in 44 BC.
After Julius Caesar’s death, his political allies began a war to oppose these assassins. Three of these supporters, Marcus Antonius (in English called Mark Antony), Lepidus, and Octavian, successfully defeated Caesar’s killers at the Battle of Philippi in 42 BC. They then assumed control of the Roman government collectively, and historians refer to their joint rule as the Second Triumvirate. Mark Antony claimed control of the wealthy eastern provinces while Octavian was responsible for the war with Sextus Pompey in Sicily; Lepidus managed only the North African provinces. Cleopatra was, at the time, the Queen of Egypt under the Ptolemaic dynasty. She had a child with Julius Caesar and became Mark Antony’s lover when he came to Alexandria, bearing three children with him.
However, conflict between Octavian and Antony eventually resulted in another civil war in 31 BC. Antony’s navy was defeated by Octavian’s at the Battle of Actium and then, after another defeat at the Battle of Alexandria, Antony and Cleopatra died by suicide. As a result, Octavian held unopposed power in Rome and took the title of princeps, establishing himself and his descendants as autocratic leaders. While the senate was not dissolved, its power was now subservient to the emperor.
Socio-Historical Context: Orientalism
Orientalism refers to the way in which Middle Eastern, Asian, and North African societies are depicted by people from Western societies. One of the major thinkers who established this field of study is Edward Said in his 1978 book Orientalism. In this book, Said argues that the depiction of eastern cultures by western cultures is tied to the imperial and colonial ambitions of western nations. Said suggests that these western nations sought to define themselves as superior by portraying eastern nations as their cultural opposite—emphasizing western rationality and order by presenting the east as irrational and chaotic. The inferiority of this constructed vision of The East could then be used to justify colonial intervention.
During the Renaissance, Western European Christians were particularly fearful of the Ottoman Empire and the threat posed by Islam. Unlike the 18th and 19th century period analyzed by Said, Renaissance Christians were not the dominant political power on the globe and, in fact, faced an often-superior military threat from the Ottoman Empire. Depictions of Ottoman Turks from this period emphasize their “uncivilized” and “barbaric” customs and behaviors in order to uphold the moral superiority of Western Christendom, but also suggested the great anxiety felt by Western Christian kingdoms about their ability to oppose the military might of Islamic empires.
Shakespeare’s portrayal of Egypt in Antony and Cleopatra displays many of the common tropes associated with Orientalism: Egypt is associated with irrationality, chaos, sensuality, and the poisonous allure of the exotic. The play reflects anxieties about the influence of eastern cultures and their ability to dominate the west, notable in Cleopatra’s dominant role in her romance with Antony.
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