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ENGL 348: Antony and Cleopatra (Full Notes)
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Unit 5: Antony and CleopatraMarch 17th —
Lecture Date Acts + Scenes Covered Notes
1 March 17th 1.1 Introduction
2 March 20th 1.1
3 March 22nd 1.1, 1.2
4 March 24th 1.4
5
6
7
8
Lecture 1: Introduction to Antony and Cleopatra
March 17th, 2023
Introduction
Antony and Cleopatra is one of Shakespeare’s later works. As tragedy, its exploration of ideas is
crucial to the renaissance, but as classical work, shifts the tragedy.
● Audience is meant to be skeptical of the characters from the beginning of the play.
● Behind the pomp and ceremony of Rome and Egypt, there’s darker things going on.
● The strategies of domination, the making of unnecessary wars and violence…
Part of the rhetoric of the play is to situate the audience so they are looking through Roman eyes.
● Everyone else looks bad by comparison – construction of masculinity as obstacles in the
way of Octavius Caesar’s way.
● Octavius and Antony break their treaty with Pompeii and turn on Lepidus – they later
turn on each other because they can’t agree.
○ Two chops insatiably grinding each other down.
Antony seeks refuge in the fantasy that it is Cleopatra who has betrayed him because he can’t
face the reality that he cannot control his men anymore.
● When he sees his own soldiers surrendering to the Romans, he reads it as Cleopatra’s
fault for leaving the battlefield halfway through.
● Cleopatra asks Enobarbus after the battle if she and Antony are at fault—Enobarbus notes
that it was only Antony who was at fault.
○ Antony fled from the fight when the odds were equal as to which side would win.
If Enobarbus analyzes the battle in such a way, then why do critics constantly
want to place the blame on Cleopatra?
Cleopatra doesn’t want Antony to lose—while she has no problem being governed by him at the
right moment, she knows the difference between the right and wrong moments.
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