Antony and Cleopatra Question: Explore Shakespeare's presentation of Domitius Enobarbus
Antony and Cleopatra Question: Explore Shakespeare's presentation of Domitius Enobarbus. Traditionally Shakespeare's use of the role of a chorus is seen to have been used as an insight for the audience into the prophesy of future events and what to expect throughout the play, usually by a secondary character. In 'Antony and Cleopatra', Shakespeare expands the role of the chorus within his presentation of Enobarbus. Enobarbus does not merely illustrate what consequences Antony and Cleopatra's actions will have, but plays a significant and vital character whose actions earn the admiration of the audience. Amid Antony's entourage is Enobarbus. Enobarbus is a high ranking officer who within the play is one of Antony's closest aficionados. Among the audience Enobarbus is seen as the thematic and moral centre of the play. Through the admired Enobarbus the power of love and loyalty are seen to overshadow the logical reason and common sense of the mind. For example his emotional break down and reaction to his betrayal and desertion of Antony and of Antony's munificent response creates a sense of desolation behind his death. "I am alone the villain of the earth, My better service when my turpitude Thou dost so crown with gold!" At times, Enobarbus is very much a chorus figure observing the behaviour of those around him. His interpretation of certain situations brings
"Relationships at all levels involve complex powerplay." How is this complexity represented in the texts you have studied?
"Relationships at all levels involve complex powerplay." How is this complexity represented in the texts you have studied? Present this task in the form of a discussion between two personalities. Base your response on your prescribed text and at least three other related texts of your own choosing. Introduction music to 'Oprah' plays. Oprah Winfrey walks onstage, waving to the audience. Oprah: My my my, how are you today ladies and gentlemen? Well don't I have a special show for you today! An uninterrupted special of Oprah, that's right no advertisements, no newsbreaks, we have a delightful guest and I'm just so, so pleased that she could join us! Now as you know, I'm an open minded person and I just love talking to people, sorry, make that personalities, from all walks of life. This lovely girl has an amazing personality, and faced with a crisis, she remained dignified. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Clover! Clover trots onstage to a hearty round of applause. Oprah: Clover, how are you girlfriend? Clover: I'm great Oprah! Just glad to be away from Animal Farm. Whoops! I still call it that after all these years! Manor Farm it is now. Oprah: Well just to update our audience, Clover has been one busy babe. After leaving Manor Farm, Clover has gained her doctorate in psychology! You go girl! Interrupted by round of applause from audience And today
Show through the movement of verse Brutus' thought process at 2
Show through the movement of verse Brutus' thought process at 2.1 lines 10-34 This is a soliloquy, designed to reveal Brutus' thinking and feelings, and also to give the audience a chance to judge his motives. By delaying the action of the play, it increases suspense as the audience enter the mind of a killer and his plotting. Throughout his speech, rhythm, rhyme, repetition and imagery are used to reveal Brutus' need to justify himself. The whole speech is in iambic pentameter. Iambs occur when, of two syllables, only the second is stressed. Here, "death" is most stressed, followed by "must". "Must" and "death" contain hard-hitting consonants ("t" and "d") and the combination, along with "must", sounds threatening, intent and violent. This rhythmic effect in the first clause sounds determined and final - so why does Brutus run on? The colon before "and, for my part" suggests that he feels he needs an explanation for this decision, one that he can justify in "general" terms (meaning for the general good of the people), if not on a "personal" level, why he is, quite definitely, going to kill Caesar. The iambic rhythm set up so far is interrupted by lines 2 and 3, with "personal" and "general" going from one stressed followed by two unstressed, creating a trickling sound, and supporting a very thoughtful tone. One can feel that Brutus is just trying to persuade
Character study of Antony in Julius Caesar.
Antony Out of all the main characters in Julius Caesar, I chose Antony to write about simply because he is so interesting. The first personality trait he shows is obedience, as revealed in Act 1 Scene 2. In lines 9-12, Caesar tells Antony, "Forget not, in your speed, Antonius/To touch Calpurnia; for our elders say/The barren, touched in this holy chase/Shake off their sterile curse." In lines 13-14, Antony replies with, "I shall remember/When Caesar says 'do this,' it is perform'd". It isn't much of a dialogue, but in it reveals that Antony obeys Caesar without question. In other words, Caesar could tell Antony to jump, and Antony would ask, "How high?" Another character trait of Antony is cleverness. This is revealed in Act 3, Scene 2. In Antony's famous monologue starting on line 82, he "turns" the crowd from supporting Brutus and the other murderers of Caesar to being against them. Not only that, but he does it without making appear as if he didn't mean to. By merely presenting facts that make the conspirators look bad, and then repeatedly "supporting them", he turns the crowd against them. Antony says in lines 97-103, "He [Caesar] hath brought many captives home to Rome/Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill/Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?/When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept/Ambition should be made of sterner stuff/Yet Brutus says he was ambitious/And
The simplicity with which Brutus speaks is what makes his voice so powerful.
The simplicity with which Brutus speaks is what makes his voice so powerful. Dennis Brutus is an internationally known poet whose poems centre on his sufferings and those of his fellow blacks in South Africa under apartheid. His outspoken protests against apartheid led to an 18-month prison term on Robben Island. He has written many poems regarding his imprisonment and the horrors of the regime in South Africa. Brutus exhibits a restrained artistic control when writing his poems, which record his experiences of misery and loneliness as a political prisoner. His language and versification are simple and direct. If anything, the hardship and suffering are understated with the result that the experiences described are conveyed with even greater force. The natural elements and symbolism used by Brutus assists him in writing his poems. Using such pleasant descriptive features to describe the violence, gives it even more impact. "Cold" is a short and compact poem with the title itself referring to a form of discomfort felt by Brutus whilst being imprisoned. The opening lines of the poem convey more of the distress experienced by Brutus. "The clammy cement sucks our naked feet" The sensory description of the cement sucking up the moisture from their 'naked feet' seems as if life itself is being extracted from the individuals. His choice of words is extremely effective as he
Antony and Cleopatra is based upon a dualistic vision of experience, the world of Rome pitted against the world of Egypt
Antony and Cleopatra is based upon a dualistic vision of experience, the world of Rome pitted against the world of Egypt. Rome is associated with military glory, honor, and moral duty and this is clearly depicted by the imagery used throughout the play. Through Cleopatra's words in Act 1 Scene1, the audience gets some insight into the Roman way even before Shakespeare introduces it on stage. "If the scarce bearded Caesar have not sent his powerful mandate to you, 'Do this, or this; Take in that kingdom and enfranchise that." As she tries to predict the message form Rome, she creates an image of a powerful and commanding Caesar whose sole concern is to ensure the political superiority of the Triumvirate. Shakespeare uses the character of Caesar to represent Rome and therefore creates the idea of a politically-motivated nation. The news from the messenger in Act 1 Scene 2 also supports the political urgency of Rome as it creates images of war and conquest that is occurring back in Rome. He speaks of Fulvia coming into "the field" and the "conquering banner" of Labenius, who is an enemy of the Trimuvirate. However, the battle of Actium which occurs after the separation of the Triumvirate is where imagery truly serves to illustrate the military urgency that is associated with Rome as images of ships, sails, swords and battle give the audience a greater understanding of the
What is the tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra
What is the tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra? Antony and Cleopatra seems to have a special place in Shakespeare's works because it is at a crossroad between two types of play. It clearly belongs to what are generally called the 'Roman' plays, along with Coriolanus and Julius Caesar. But it is also considered a tragedy. The importance of history in the play cannot be denied, especially where it is compared to Shakespeare's 'great' tragedies such as Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet. But one might wonder what is specifically tragic in Antony and Cleopatra, and what can be said about the tragic in a play which is so different from the other tragedies. It is clear that the notion of 'tragic' in the everyday sense is not necessarily the same as the notion of 'tragedy', which is a philosophical notion whose definition depends on which philosophic system one takes into account. In this article I shall take the term tragic in its literary and dramatic sense and try to define its main characteristics. Taking into account a wide corpus of plays, from Antiquity as well as from France and England, we can detect several constant features that can define the tragic. A tragedy usually shows a character that is outstanding by his rank or/and inner abilities, falling into misfortune as a result of fate, and because of an error or a weakness for which he is not really responsible. Several tragic
Study carefully the following extract from The Social Contract, and the painting The Lictors Returning to Brutus The Bodies of his Sons.
Study carefully the following extract from The Social Contract, and the painting The Lictors Returning to Brutus The Bodies of his Sons. Identify the main themes and ideas in the extract and painting and discuss the different ways in which they are explored by Rousseau and David. Both Rousseau and David's philosophy have the same idea where David was influenced by Rousseau to a great extent. However, they have presented their ideas in different medium whereby one was on the written form whereas the other one was on the visual form. Therefore, this essay will prove their ideas in different ways which they are explored by Rousseau and David. Rousseau constructed the social contract was to solve the question of freedom, and his solution to this problem was the construction of the civil state. In other words, his idea was that living in the civil state was similar as signing a contract in which one agrees to obey the general will and not one's particular will. Rousseau wanted to show that man could live in the civil state and be free as in the state of nature. Through the grouping of citizens, each willing to surrender himself and live with others as a whole which required thinking rationally and act morally. Most importantly, by agreeing to the social contract, people gave up their physical freedom in state of nature and signing himself over to the civil state. Hence, this