Antony and Cleopatra
Date Submitted: 04/10/2002 15:33:01
Category: / Literature / European Literature
Length: 21 pages (5786 words)
Category: / Literature / European Literature
Length: 21 pages (5786 words)
In this essay I will explore the transformations of two signs that structure Antony and Cleopatra: performance and writing. As each circulates in the diverse dramatic contexts of the play, they articulate its thematic elements into a series of varying relations which operate at different levels of abstraction; from interactions between principles of flow and constraint, through the construction of characters' honour, virtue, or reputation, to what might be the perceived meaning of the physical …
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…my helmet to
My countryman: a Roman by a Roman
Valiantly vanquish'd. (4.15.52-58)
After a series of scenes in which the performances of Antony and Cleopatra have failed to live up to their reputations, Cleopatra--admitting her theatricality via the meta-theatrical device above--stages a self-conscious performance that will assure their reputations are perpetuated beyond the limits of Caesar's newly-established imperial power:
Give me my robe, put on my crown, I have
Immortal longings in me. (5.2.279-280)
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