For Monday:
Shakespeare, Antony
Answer TWO of the
following...
Q1: In Act 4, Scene 4,
Cleopatra dresses Antony Antony
Q2: In Act 4 we have three
deaths and one fake one (Cleopatra); how do the deaths of the servants
(Enobarbus and Eros) compare with Antony
Q3: In Act 4, Scene 12, Antony Antony
Q4: Why does Cleopatra
play the final trick on Antony
Q1: I believe that aside from her political role and gain, she, in her heart, wants Antony to return the victor over Caesar. Her defining him as "gallantly" gives Antony a heroic sort of appeal. I hear her almost openly expressing her real feelings toward Antony, but then quickly pulling herself back into her facade of cat-and-mouse. She may be lamenting her time spent with Antony in that it was never fully devoted to him but filled with games of teasing.
ReplyDeleteQ2: Enobarbus: I found Enobarbus's death to be a sound one, as his body could not take the tragedy of his betrayl to his long service of Antony. Stress and heartache played a vital role to his entrance of death as well as his "own purpose" to serve.
Eros and Antony: I believe Eros's death to play the part in making Antony's death bathetic. He orates an entire speech to his master on loyalty and creates the moment to follow his lord's orders only to quickly fall short of fulfilling his orders by commiting suicide. Antony's death is extrmely bathetic because he is waiting the entire time for his servant to slay him. The whole time two are talking Atony is waiting to be killed, therefore drawing out his untimely moment. At the climax of the scene he realizes that he has to kill himself, robbing him of a noble death. After falling on his sword and missing a major kill spot, Antony realizes he can't even kill himself properly - especially considering his title as a general. His guards won't even help him to follow through with his actions. He also finds out that Cleopatra's death was a lie and now can't heal himself to live on, but suffer a slow death in agony and torment of his failures and being made a mockery of.
Cleopatra: Cleopatra's death was entirely bathetic due to it's purpose being entirely to rile up Antony. She wanted to test and toy with Antony to see his response and realized that as time into her scheme went there was the major flaw that he would kill himself. Her thoughts were correct, and she and he came up short in the end due to her negligence and deciept.
Yes, isn't it interesting that the SERVANTS die tragically and movingly, and their masters die in a foolish, bathetic fashion (and hell, neither of them really die--Antony lingers on for some time, and Cleopatra was faking it all along). Shakespeare is doing something important here, reminding us that a servant's life, which is forgotten, can be far more noble than the much-celebrated (and much inflated) deeds of their "betters," The quiet dignity of Eros, who dies rather than kill his master, or Enobarbus' dejected death in a ditch, move us in a way that Antony and Cleopatra cannot. They forgot how to live long ago...so how can their deaths be any different?
DeleteQ3: Antony calls her a "foul Egyptian" in line 10. He could have just as easily said her name or called her a woman. I think using her ethnicity hints at his inner feelings. He goes on to say he should have seen this coming because "like a right gypsy [she] hath at fast and loose/ beguiled me to the very heart of loss" (lines 28-29). Antony's underlying view and mixed feelings about Cleopatra are made clear in this speech. While her bosom "was [his] crownet" (27), Antony refers to her as a "grave charm" (deadly witch) just two lines earlier. Cleopatra is not like him and I'm not sure that he ever got past that throughout the course of their relationship.
ReplyDeleteQ4: Cleopatra has her own way of doing things, and while telling someone you're dead to calm them down isn't entirely appropriate, that's just what she did. In Act 4, Scene 15 Antony tries to kill himself after the news is delivered of his death. When Diomedes, one of Cleopatra's attendants, comes to tell him the truth it is too late. He tells Antony "you did suspect/ she had sipped with Caesar, and that your rage/ would not be purged, she sent word she was dead" (lines 120-122). Cleopatra, however, "fearing since how it might work, hath sen/t me to proclaim the truth" (123-124). Through this passage we can see Cleopatra trying to work her magic.
Yes, Cleopatra tries to one-up everyone with her death, which comes off as very bathetic, particularly her "dying words." This contrasts notably with the deaths of Enobarbus and Eros, who die tragically and movingly. It shows the limits of her stagecraft, particularly when "real people" are dying on stage. It also makes us question whether she can really love or die, or if everything is a bathetic performance.
DeleteQ 1. I believe she closes with this statement because she knows exactly how the end will play out. I think she knows that Caesar is going to triumph, and she wants to make it seem like she’s in love with him. I think it is meant to be read in a satirical way where she’s acting like she wants him to think she is so sad, but really ultimately wants him to die. I’m not positive; I’m kind of confused on this part.
ReplyDeleteO3. Antony is so angry. He calls her a “Triple-turn’d whore!” He hates her and he basically says he should have expected it. I think it shows his innate behavior as an Egyptian. He basically says she’s lower than him and he should have always known that.
Good responses--remember, though, that Antony is a Roman, not an Egyptian (Q3). When she betrays him, he always sees her as an Egyptian, a gipsy, etc. He blames her nature rather than her person, which shows his racial instinct. It shows the tragic nature of their relationship, and suggests that even when he is most in love with her, he feels he's slumming it and/or going against his race and values. It's demeaning to him, which is why he never discusses her in Rome--and angrily asserts to Caesar that he's not married. To marry her would be an act of cultural shame which he cannot overcome.
ReplyDeleteq3. It's pretty clear that he has set up a wall between her and himself now; she's a "foul Egyptian," Betrayed I am. O this false soul of Egypt!," "This grave charm,"like a right gypsy," He uses all this colorful language to say that his girlfriend is a cheating jerk and he get's a little racist because he really has no other angles to pull. But he still knows that she's his love because he says "Whose eye becked forth my wars and called them home, / Whose bosom was my crownet, my chief end." He's so angry!
ReplyDeleteq4. When Cleopatra plays dead, she's hoping that Antony will come running home--as he did with the death of Fulvia. This doesn't work out for Cleopatra as we see because instead Antony just decides he should die, too. Fortunately, or unfortunately, he's bad at killing himself and lasts just long enough to die in her arms. This just further makes me believe Cleopatra is a childish woman that doesn't know how to look at the big picture and be mature about things. I think the last thing she says in scene 13, "go tell him I have slain myself. / Say that the last I spoke was 'Antony,' / and word it, prithee, piteously." Then she asks Mardian to return and tell her how he "takes" her death. She just wants him to freak out and come running back to her.
I know I'm late by a couple hours, but better late than never!
1. I believe Cleopatra may have gotten caught up in the romantic moment. At the very least, she was in love with the idea of love with Antony. If she was totally detached she wouldn't have bothered spending time with Antony so sweetly. She forgot her role, if she was playing one, and dreamed a little that he might win and be alive to be with her.
ReplyDelete3. Clearly Antony did not hold such sweet affections for Cleopatra as he had prior believed nor she for that matter. The knowledge of the cultural differences never went away in their time together and with it, the esteem of the Egyptian people and their queen. If he really was so enamored he wouldn't have recalled so many varied insults. The pressure of who and what he was ensured he never forgot what other people saw. Ever.
Kenia Starry