Antony is a once fierce and feared soldier who rules the Roman Empire along with Ocatvius Caesar and Lepidus. In the opening of the play, Antony has neglected his duties as a ruler in order to live in Egypt, where he carries on a highly visible love affair with Cleopatra. Antony’s loyalty is divided between Egypt and Rome. He is torn between the sense of duty and the desire to seek pleasure. Although Antony feels he needs to fulfil his duties and rule in Rome, he cannot fight the passion, which he feels for Cleopatra and that is making him want to stay in Egypt.
The Queen of Egypt, Cleopatra is Antony’s lover. Cleopatra delights in the thought that she has caught Antony’s heart. In matters of love, as in all things, Cleopatra expresses the expectation that love should be declared or demonstrated grandly. She wants to hear and see how much Antony loves her.
In scene two, we are still in Cleopatra's palace. There is idle and humorously indecent conversation among Cleopatra's female attendants Charmian, Iras, Lord Alexas, Mardian the eunuch, a soothsayer, and Antony's right hand man Domitius Enobarbus. Cleopatra enters and says Antony is having a Roman thought, making fun of the Roman ways of sternness and no sense of a good life.
A messenger tells Antony that Fulvia, Antony’s wife, is stirring up trouble, first making war against Antony’s brother Lucius and then uniting with Lucius against Octavius. Antony knows he is needed at home and that he must break away from his Egyptian restraints.
Another messenger arrives to say Fulvia has died in Sicyon, the Greek town in which he left her. Antony generously expresses regret at her death, saying, “There’s a great spirit gone! Thus did I desire it”. When Antony tells Enobarbus they must depart from Rome, and Enobarbus jokes that Cleopatra will die as a result. Enobarbus tries to console him that there are other women to take the place of Fulvia. Antony knows the trouble Fulvia has caused back home and the other developing crises require his return and asks Enobarbus to stop making jokes and the prepare for departure.
In scene three, we are still in Egypt. Cleopatra is fretting with Charmian and Alexas about Antony’s planned sudden departure and plots her strategy about how to retain his affections, “See where he is, who’s with him, what he does. I did not send you. If you find him sad, Say I am dancing; if in mirth , report that I am sudden sick. Quick and return”. To Antony she says that he has betrayed her and that she is sick, that his falseness to Fulvia is being repeated toward her. Her conversation is laced with sexual innuendo “I would I had thy inches”. This helps to show how Cleopatra fears that Antony may leave and return to Rome. She is hoping that if she acts upset he may stay with her. Cleopatra is jealous and is playing up to Antony. She is feeling sorry for herself “so mightily betrayed” she does not let Antony tell her his news and when she finally lets him speak. He tells her the bad news he has received. Cleopatra replies with “Can Fulvia die?” she is being both very childish and disrespectful for the dead. Antony then pledges his ongoing love for her but she continues to play the part of the rejected lover. Antony now more than ever is feeling pulled by both his duty to the empire and his desire for pleasure, his want for military glory and his passion for Cleopatra. No matter how hard Cleopatra tried Antony was set on leaving Egypt to go back to his duties and sort out his empire.
Overall in the first three scenes of the play, the theme is very much so the love and desire between Antony and Cleopatra and the struggle between their relationship. We hear Rome’s views on the relationship in the opening lines of the play. It is very much so a fight between the East meeting the West, Egypt meets Rome. Egypt is the full of life land and Rome is very much the orderly and structured land. At the end of the scene we are left with Antony leaving for Rome and Cleopatra continuing to live a life of decadence in the free-flowing Egypt. However I believe as much as Antony feels he should leave and return to his duties he really wants to stay and live a decadent life by Cleopatra's side.