The play is also based upon the ideas of politics, such as when Caesar’s sister, Octavia marries Antony so that Caesar and Antony would return to good terms again. It would also show the Roman public that Antony had forgotten about his love affair with Cleopatra and had returned to Rome for good. But when Antony returns to Egypt and Octavia comes back to Caesar her quiet entrance back into Rome is nothing like Caesar wants it to be, “The wife of Antony should have an army for an usher, and the neighs of horse to tell of her approach long ere she did appear.” Octavia’s quiet entrance shows that she is no longer a political tool, to maintain Caesars and Antony’s friendship. She does not need to be displayed to the entire public to show them that Caesar and Antony are still on good terms.
Antony’s relationship with Cleopatra has got much less to do with politics than it has to do with playfulness and partying. This is to do with the contrast between Rome and Egypt and how both the countries are focussed on such different things.
In the play Enobarbus is Antony’s most loyal supporter, who sticks with Antony even after his great political and military missteps. He only leaves Antony when it appears that Antony is completely finished, and has lost all his skills in judgement and tactics in war. But the grief caused to Enobarbus is to great, killing him, with his last words being “O Antony! O Antony!” asking for Antony’s forgiveness for leaving him.
Antony’s loss of Enobarbus indicates that all Romans have lost faith in Antony and that he is no longer the hero that he once was.
The fall of Antony gradually builds up in the play, from Philo’s speech in the first scene, to the death of Enobarbus.
By the Romans Cleopatra is called, “a lustful gypsy”, a “whore”, a “slave”, an “Egyptian dish” and a “wrangling queen” and an enchantress which has made Antony “the noble ruin of her magic”, but you cannot view Cleopatra by the narrow perspective the Romans do. They only criticise her because they feel threatened by her beauty, sexuality and how she acts.
She is also very erratic, toying with Antony throughout the play, but taking it one step too far when she fakes her death leading Antony to kill himself. Twice in the play Cleopatra’s navy flees from Caesars. The ships stand as a reminder of Cleopatra’s inconstancy in character, often wavering and changing.
Antony looses much in the play, such as his status in Rome, and the loyalty he used to receive from his soldiers. He looses himself “in dotage”, having his better judgement being spoilt by Cleopatra. He even admits so when he says, “these strong Egyptian fetters I must break, or lose myself in dotage”. Antony relieves himself from all his duties and starts a personal life for his own pleasures with his mistress Cleopatra. By the end of the play he is so weak a soldier that he cannot even kill himself properly, he falls on his own sword and has to wait quite long until he finally dies.
But by killing himself he insures that his reputation as being a great soldier and general is restored in Rome, because suicide is seen as being honourable by the Romans, “a Roman by a Roman valiantly vanquished”.
By Kritank Gupta
