Explain How Shakespeare Uses Language In Antony and Cleopatra To Depict the Two Main Protagonists.
Explain how Shakespeare uses language in 'Antony and Cleopatra' to depict the two main protagonists.
The epic love affair of Antony and Cleopatra is a great and powerful love shared by two people at the height of their fame and glory. Plutarch's 'Life of Antonius' is the principal source, and Shakespeare has blended this factual evidence together with fiction and drama to create a play that is strikingly different from many of his other works, especially in terms of theme, structure and the impressive and most descriptive language used.
Plutarch wrote in the first century AD, probably not more than a hundred years after the death of Antony, but soon enough to hear personal experiences from his great grandfather about the battle of Actium, and from even his grandfather about Antony's generous entertaining in Alexandria. He was a Greek philosopher, and so his sympathies ran more towards his fellow countrymen than the Roman subjects of his detailed studies. Shakespeare, distilling North's version at the time when his creative skills were at their height, was able to use both the language and the stories exactly to suit his intentions. In many cases he remains remarkably faithful to the original, for example in the famous speech by Enobarbus praising Cleopatra (II.2.193), but he sometimes left out unfavourable comments and expanded the material, adding his own events in order to create his plays and to evoke the special atmosphere for his verse translation from the prose of the biographer.
Plutarch's account of Antony and Cleopatra is so vivid because of his use of sources that were personal to the characters, such as Cleopatra's doctor's notes, but also his own memories of Egypt, which was the first country he visited on his travels.
Shakespeare has smoothly condensed Plutarch's account of eleven years of Antony's history into a swiftly moving plot, filled with intense sensibility, revealing the deep personalities of the main characters, relating their love story in the most compelling poetic drama. He describes Antony's generosity and how popular he was with his men, and cuts out suggestions of Cleopatra's disloyalty. Shakespeare even invents actions by Octavius Caesar in order to increase our sympathy for the lovers. Strangely, in his need for a fast moving plot, he neglects to mention that Antony actually stayed with his wife Octavia for four years before he returned to Cleopatra. Also, from a Senator only mentioned twice in Plutarch's work, Shakespeare creates Enobarbus, a key figure in the play.
Diction is used effectively in the introductory scenes in 'Antony and Cleopatra', to describe the characters, and to give the audience a feel of what the play is going to be about. Philo, the first character to speak, talks of Cleopatra's power over Antony. He says that she has turned him from a mighty warrior into a 'strumpet's fool'. (I, I, 13) Bathetic and epic imagery is used many times during the course of the play, when describing both Antony and Cleopatra. Other examples of bathetic imagery in the play are the image of bellows being curbed by 'a gypsy's lust', the 'triple pillar of the world' being reduced to a 'strumpet's fool', and the image of a 'tawny frost' diminishing that of Mars. (I, I, 1-13) Bathos is used to reflect the main theme of the play, which is the fall of a great leader.
Antony is likened to Mars many times in the play, as he, like Mars, is seen as a great warrior and is given godlike status by many, even when near defeat.
"...Your emperor
Continues still a Jove".
IV, vii, 29-30
It would seem that Antony and Cleopatra is a great and perfect love story. However, if we are to look more deeply into the matter, we find that perhaps it was not meant to be that, but a story centred around ageing, jealousy, betrayal, power and human frailty, where the protagonists are maybe not ...
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Antony is likened to Mars many times in the play, as he, like Mars, is seen as a great warrior and is given godlike status by many, even when near defeat.
"...Your emperor
Continues still a Jove".
IV, vii, 29-30
It would seem that Antony and Cleopatra is a great and perfect love story. However, if we are to look more deeply into the matter, we find that perhaps it was not meant to be that, but a story centred around ageing, jealousy, betrayal, power and human frailty, where the protagonists are maybe not quite so perfect.
Both Antony and Cleopatra start out in the play as perfect beings, but are measured against their own personal past, much to their disadvantage.
"...didst drink
The stale of horses and the gilded puddle".
I, IV, 62-63
This is a reference to Antony as a soldier; when there was nothing else to drink he would drink animals' urine. None of the things he has had to do have made him flinch. He only ever cried when Julius Caesar died, and he is the greatest soldier that Octavius Caesar knows.
Cleopatra can be seen as either utterly perfect, or as far from it as anyone can imagine. She is a great and enchanting empress, but also the 'nag of Egypt'.
In fact there are many ambiguities in both of their characters. Antony is a Mars and a Hercules, but also a 'strumpet's fool'. Cleopatra is an extremely diverse character. Shakespeare's expression of these qualities makes Cleopatra his 'most amazing and dazzling single personification.' - G. Wilson Knight, The Imperial Theme, Methuen, London, 1965, p.289.
The play is filled with clusters of images, which reflect the play's many themes. These image clusters include cosmic and transcendental images, such as those of the sun, moon, stars, heavens, spheres and worlds. These add to the epic feel of the play. An example of this is:
"His legs bestrid the ocean; his reared arm
Crested the world; his voice was propertied
As all the tuned spheres, and that to friends;
But when he meant to quail and shake the orb,
He was as rattling thunder. For the bounty,
There was no winter in't; an autumn 'twas
That grew the more by reaping. His delights
Were dolphin-like; they showed his back above
The element they lived in. In his livery
Walked crowns and crownets; realms and islands were
As plates dropped from his pocket."
V, ii, 81-91
Antony is a colossal figure credited with power over the world and then over the universe. Even his voice expresses the harmony of the planets, inaccessible to mortal ears. The rapid switch from the seasonal imagery to that of the sea is again typical of Shakespeare's late style - an impatience at the unexplored resources of language. Then comes another move, to kings and princes and servants wearing his livery, and finally a cosmic image of liberality, "realms and islands" carelessly dropped, like coins from his pocket. This is probably a reference to Antony's carelessness about his empire, as Cleopatra was so much more important to him. (Idea from Shakespeare's Language, Frank Kermode, Penguin 2000)
Images of dissolution can also be found in the play. These are usually images of melting and fading. For example, Antony says, "Authority melts from me." - III, xiii, 92. Also, "Let Rome in Tiber melt," (I, i, 35) says Antony, putting before us the antithetical relation between the two significant parts of the world; Rome and Egypt, almost immediately. He then says, "Here is my space." (I, i, 36). He is choosing to be where Egypt melts into the fertilising Nile, and the point about the flooding of Egypt is made mentioned again in later passages:
"Melt Egypt into Nile, and kindly creatures
Turn all to serpents! ..."
II, v, 79-80
This is Cleopatra's angry response to the news that Antony has married Octavia. All of these images of dissolution reflect the main theme of the play; the fall of a great leader, as do the bathetic images in Philo's speech which I mentioned earlier.
Many other types of images can be found in the play, including physical and sensuous images, which are found wherever Egypt in described. Egypt is a very feminine place, associated with abundance, fertility, warmth and luxury. Rome is the complete antithesis of Egypt. It evokes images of restraint, business and coldness. The fact that Antony spends much of his time in Egypt causes Octavius Caesar to worry that he is becoming effeminate.
Images of fortune and destiny are frequently found in the play, as if everything is due to fate. The word 'fortune' is used forty-four times in the play; no other play has even half as many occurrences. (Shakespeare's Language, Frank Kermode, Penguin 2000) An example of an image of destiny can be found in Act I Scene II, where a soothsayer is foreseeing the future for Charmian and Iras. People tended to believe in soothsayers at the time, and many were afraid of them. The Gods are referred to many times in the play, not just when Antony is likened to Mars, but also in the commonplace language that Shakespeare uses. For example, "...Had I great Juno's power" (IV, xv, 35). Some other Gods that are mentioned are Venus, Isis and Hercules.
Cleopatra and Antony mean much more than they actually say. In Act I Scene III, the nature of their complex emotional relationship is shown. Cleopatra has a strong desire for Antony to stay in Egypt, and she taunts, cajoles and torments him in a bid to keep him there. She pushes him away, then pulls him back, one minute scornfully calling him "this Herculean Roman" - Act I, Scene III, 84. (Again a reference to the Gods - Antony's family claimed to be of Herculean descent) The very next moment Cleopatra cries "O, my oblivion is a very Antony." Act I, Scene III, 91.
Shakespeare uses many oxymorons in the play; an example of this is when Cleopatra says:
"..... Now I feed myself
With most delicious poison."
I, v, 27-28
She says this when she imagines Antony thinking of her; in fantasy she speculates not only about Antony but also about herself. She describes, in an elusive manner, herself as being "wrinkled deep in time" - I,V,30.
Maybe Cleopatra is being serious of self-mocking, or perhaps she is just looking for compliments.
Also, in Act I Scene V, Cleopatra recalls the great men who have been her lovers (lines 30-35). To 'stand,' 'grow' and 'die' all suggest sexual arousal. However, Antony is her man of men, and there is a passionate intensity in her vision of him. The words and phrases, which express her intense passion, are the words of a woman truly in love. She thinks of him constantly. For example:
"Where think'st thou he is O Charmian now? Stands he, or sits he?
Or does he walk? Or is he on his horse?
O happy horse, to bear the weight of Antony!"
I, v, 19-22
This last line can also been seen as a sexual image, partly because 'horse' is supposed to sound like 'whore' and partly because Cleopatra herself would be happy to bear the weight of Antony.
Cleopatra can also be seen as being cruel sometimes. In the same scene, she makes nasty comments and threats to Mardian, Alexas and Charmian. Are these spoken good naturedly, or is there a sadistic streak in her words? This could be seen as friendly banter or genuine anger.
Scarus's anger, disappointment and disgust at his leader's dishonourable flight from battle to follow Cleopatra is evident in the language he uses to describe them both. He uses animal imagery, saying that Cleopatra is a "ribaudred nag," - III, X, 9. Scarus also says:
"The breeze upon her, like a cow in June,
Hoists sail and flies."
III, X, 13-14
This suggests that Cleopatra fled the battle like a cow that had been stung by a gadfly. A gadfly's sting would make cows charge across fields. It is also a reference to the sails of the ship. Antony follows her "like a doting mallard" (III, X, 19) after its mate, not at all like the god of war he has been described as.
One might infer that the speech that best summarises Cleopatra's unique character is that of Enobarbus:
"Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
Her infinite variety. Other women cloy
The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry
Where most she satisfies. For vilest things
Become themselves in her, that the holy priests
Bless her when she is riggish."
II, iii, 245-250
Cleopatra was in her forties, which was considered to be fairly old at that time. But Enobarbus says "Age cannot wither her," which means that no matter how old she gets she will still be perfect. "Her infinite variety" refers to her ever-changing mood, and "...she makes hungry where most she satisfies" implies that men get easily bored of other women but never of her. She is the epitome of the female, and everyone adores her.
Several of Shakespeare's tragic heroes appear to lose their grip on reality. Macbeth's imagination intoxicates him; in Antony's case, Cleopatra's poison has a similar effect, as have the effects of alcohol, which are mentioned throughout the play; drinking being one of Antony's delights. He cries "Fill our bowls once more," and promises to "drink carouses to the next day's fate" III, xiii, 188; IV, viii, 34. (Idea from Myriad-Minded Shakespeare: E.A.J Honigmann, Macmillan Press Ltd. London 1998.)
In conclusion Shakespeare depicts the two main protagonists using sometimes rich, luxurious language and sometimes frugal, meagre language to create bathos. His work is greatly influenced by Plutarch's 'Life of Antonius.' He uses images of dissolution - usually melting and fading, and physicality and sensuousness that are found wherever Egypt is described. Transcendental images of the world and universe add to the epic feel of the play, along with the comparison of the protagonists with the Gods, which are frequent in the play. Cleopatra is a 'rainbow spectrum of humanity' (York Notes, Antony and Cleopatra, Page 56, Oxford University Press, 1980) and Antony is a great and powerful leader who dies a noble death