Antony and Cleopatra Context

Question 1

How does Antony’s death have biblical allusions?

Answer 1

• Religion was hugely important in a Jacobean society. The English audience might have picked up on Biblical allusions more than modern viewers. A member of critics have claimed that Jacobeans would recall Christ’s last supper in Antony’s farewell to his servants and would hear in Antony’s death scene echoes of the bible’s vision of the end of the world. For example when Cleopatra says ‘ The crown of the earth doth melt’ - recalling the Book of Revelation’s image of the world shaking and cracking.

Question 2

Why is Rome depicted as stoic, cold and political?

Answer 2

• James I emphasized nationhood in his reign and saw Britain as the 3rd great Western civilization after Greece and Rome. He saw London as a new Rome and himself as Caesar of Britain bringing stable rule to the country when he was crowned King. Shakespeare would have known all this and is aware also of Rome and depicts it both as epitomizing stoicism and cold political manoeuvring.

Question 3

What were women like in Jacobean England?

Answer 3

• Jacobean England was unashamedly misogynistic with women who took control over their sexuality particularly badly treated in Early modern drama.
• However, strangely, in Jacobean drama, women were also frequently seen to subvert gender roles.

Question 4

Apotheosis meaning

Answer 4

The glorification of a subject to divine level.

Question 5

Plutarch

Answer 5

-Thomas North’s translation of Plutarch is the narrative basis for the play. Plutarch highlighted Antony’s cruelty and firmly blames Cleopatra for his downfall. However, Shakespeare’s Antony is treated much more generous than Plutarchs.

Question 6

How is Caesar presented by Plutarch Vs how he is presented by Shakespeare?

Answer 6

• Plutarch portrays Caesar as being guided by fate, predestined to govern the world. Shakespeare, however, offers a darker side to Caesar, ignoring playful aspects of his character observed by Plutarch.

Question 7

How does Plutarch present Cleopatra VS how does Shakespeare present Cleopatra?

Answer 7

• Shakespeare dedicates his final act to the exploration of Cleopatra’s death where as Plutarch’s history focuses much more on Antony.

Question 8

What was a common tradition in Rome?

Answer 8

• It was tradition that when you defeat your enemy you kill on the battlefield or capture them and take back and parade them in your triumph and kill them afterwards.
• This is what Caesar wanted to do to Cleopatra and what Cleopatra was trying to escape when she killed herself.

Question 9

Where did the most evidence on Cleopatra come from?

Answer 9

• So little evidence about Cleopatra came from Egypt itself. The largest amount of evidence came from Rome itself. But Rome is her enemy and Rome is going to defeat her and much of what survives is in terms of Rome’s perspective.
• Cleopatra was an embarrassment in Rome’s eye. They constructed propaganda about her and she was pictured as a drunken whore.