The truly tragic figure in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra is Cleopatra. Discuss

Barbara Everett refinely makes that the fit ?is continu each(prenominal)y suggestively of different kinds and categories of drama.? This is non further a tragedy and no character is simply and ? au indeedtically? sad. However, Cleopatra, Antony and Enobarbus have sadalal elements ? grandeur, nobility, sinister misjudgements and a decease from the high school ? as well as lesser qualities. It would be rightful(a) to add, though, that Cleopatra is the dominating presence in the play. Even the hard-bitten Enobarbus is curl by her, telling Antony he is ?blest? to have met her. In his gravid speech in Act 2:2, she is presented as queen, ricer goddess, rival to Venus and groovy work of art. Gold, silver, mermaids, nymphs, perfumes and the enchanting right of flutes combine to create a sensual paradise. This picture-painting is one f the chief means whereby Shakespe are establishes Cleopatra?s brilliance; not unclouded or spiritual, besides into the area of myth: ?Age cannot prune her, nor custom stale/ Her eternal variety.? Antony, ?the triple pillar of the vote down?, is leave ?whistling to th?air? and so, by soupy contrast, her commanding presence is accentuated. afterward Antony?s death her speeches of ruefulness carry her into the sad scene of action since they piercingly convey her bareness: ?The odds is gone, /And in that location is noting left remarkable/ Beneath the twist moon.? Equals Macbeth?s ?Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow?? as an oral recipe of devastating sacking and apprehension of meaninglessness. Her ?dream? of Antony is the compulsive expression of her love for him ? his features ? kept their course and lighted/ the dinky O, the landed estate? ? and coming, as it does, after(prenominal) his death, this expression contains not solitary(prenominal) love, tho the tragic realization of what she has lost: the whole world. besides is the last effect ? actually? or solely tragic? I A Richards claims that if a play has a compensating paradise to stick out the tragic gun, [the effect] is fatal.? Cleopatra and Antony look forward to reunification in the elysian field and so, how can we tactual sensation the tragic reaction of clemency? Jacobean audiences hoped in some mastermind of after-life and so would in all probability have been carried on on the promise of the lovers? reunion; even off a modern non-believer whitethorn feel their (deluded) belief counterbalances a ?really? tragic effect. In addition, it may be utter that Cleopatra has also many flaws for a tragic attack aircraft. Her extreme surliness c seees, her force play when she is thwarted, her never-explained flight from the battle of Actium, these are a some of many. Moreover, there are times when she appears, not great or tragic, but comical or funny (for instance, when she coaches her messenger to get round a caricatured depiction of Octavia ? and therefore is childishly pleased , believe the image that she herself has suggested. Antony?s claim to the status of tragic hero may be considered as similarly compromised. He is sometimes a fool (even if not a ?strumpet?s fool?) mocked in general by Cleopatra; he follows her depose out of the Battle of Actium; he sends Caesar an absurd challenge to nuclear number 53 drop-off upon; he bungles his death, so that a suicide ?after the high Roman fashion? descends into a tragic comedy. However, give flush Cleopatra, he has at times the tough of tragic impressiveness round him. In defeat, he thinks not solely roughly his won loss of ? prise? but also closely his followers commanding them to capture his gold and divide it amongst themselves, because desert to Caesar.

Similarly, he sends Enobarbus his appreciate after his desertion. And after Actium, his forgiveness for Cleopatra is swift and total: ? ignite not a tear, I say; one of them rank/ All that is won and lost.? Antony is, moreover, caught in the wheels of the great tragic work that will devour him. Shakespeare causes a sense of doom to hang over him for much of the play. When he is in Caesar?s company, his soothsayer claims: ?Thy lustre thickens/ When he shines by?, and Antony notes the gods always favour Caesar in their games of chance. The sense of his being unlucky by fate to become a tragic fall is intensified when, before the two battles at Alexandria, strange medicament prompts a soldier to publish: ? Tis the god Hercules, whom Antony loved, /Now leaves him.? tragic inevitability surrounds him. Enobarbus, too, is a great figure, staying loyal to Antony beyond reason, and, when he does desert, being overcome by guilt and dying of a broken heart. At least(prenominal) one critic (Ewan Fernie) finds him the tragic hero of the play, according to wayfaring criteria. Certainly, his intelligence, breadth of sympathy and whiz make him enormously agreeable; but he is overshadowed by the great personalities of the two lovers and the dilute bulk of great vocal music spoken by or about them. In conclusion, no one character is the rivet of the play; and the two principals cannot be seen as wholly tragic. Indeed, the play transcends generic boundaries. BibliographyBarbara Everett - The tragedy of Antony and CleopatraRex Gibson - Cambridge students ply to Antony and Cleopatra If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: Orderessay

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