gentleman. At times he can be stern, direct; one imagines he doesn’t suffer fools gladly,
this is apparent during the second scene a he momentarily looses his patience with the
messenger whose thankless task is to inform Anthony of his wife’s death, ‘Speak to me at
home, mince not the general tongue’. He is too much in love with Cleopatra and it seems
consistently thrives to assure her of his feelings and impress on her his intentions.
Shakespeare constantly invites comparison and contrast between Egypt and Rome .The
Roman world seems to look with disapproval on Cleopatra and the frivolous, sexualized
world of Egypt. A good example of this is in scene one when Philo a Roman speaks of
Cleopatra, ‘the office and devotion of their view. Upon a tawny front’. Philo is speaking
of Cleopatra in a very derogative way, showing Roman prejudice against Egyptians,
‘tawny’, meaning dark skinned.
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Anthony has fallen for a beautiful, exotic woman and he shouldn’t have, and we soon
discover that Rome is embarrassed by his indulgence, but as we as the audience warm to
him the reason being because Shakespeare has brought to our attention a great
bond between the couple. ‘But stirr’d by Cleopatra. Now for the love of love and her soft
hours, lets not confound the time with conference harsh. There’s not a minute of our lives
should stretch without some pleasure now. What sport tonight?’
Caesar initiates that life in Alexandria is peppered with sin, he frowns upon Anthony’s
revelry, ‘this is the news: he fishes, drinks and wastes the night time lamps with revel....’
he continues his discussion with Lepidus, ‘Let us grant, it is not amiss to tumble on the
bed of Ptolemy, to give a kingdom for a mirth..’ Caesar takes a very dim view of not only
Anthony’s antics but also where he is doing them. It appears Shakespeare wants us to
note Rome’s snobbery, after all it’s the greatest empire on the planet. He does this by
personifying Rome through the eyes and opinions of Octavius Caesar.
Rome seems to represent the ‘serious’ world of politics, male honor and emotional
control, a good example of this is the length of scene four, it is very short and the
dialogue business like, it seems to reflect the Roman world.
Anthony’s constant conflict between duty and pleasure really highlight the contrast
between Egypt and Rome. Rome being duty and Egypt being pleasure. As Anthony
concerns himself with Roman affairs, his language becomes ever more formal and public.
‘No more light answers. Let our officers have notice what we purpose.’ This shows the
formality of Rome in contrast to Egypt, Anthony’s dialogue is far different earlier on ‘Let
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Rome in Tiber melt and the wide arch of the ranged empire fall!’
In the first act there is also of imagery to describe the scene of Egypt, ‘O’erflows the
measure’. This is very much drink imagery which shows us that Egypt is very much
about letting go and relaxing, drinking and having fun, enjoying the moment. There is
also a good use of dramatic contrast between the two Anthony’s, ‘Have glowed like
plated Mars’ this being the Roman Anthony, the strong fighter , ‘into a strumpets fool’.
Meaning a prostitutes fool which refers to Anthony over Cleopatra in Egypt.
