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760 reviews for:
Antony And Cleopatra: An Extraordinary Tale of fiction Drama By William Shakespeare (Annotated)
William Shakespeare
760 reviews for:
Antony And Cleopatra: An Extraordinary Tale of fiction Drama By William Shakespeare (Annotated)
William Shakespeare
It’s close to being something great, but doesn’t match up for me. Too many superfluous characters, and a good team effort but no standout characters. There isn’t a monologue I’m on the edge of my seat waiting for, or a big dramatic moment that stays with me after. Marc Antony just isn’t interesting in this play.
Where’s the boldness and thrill of Julius Caesar, the other major piece of Roman Shakespeare work?
Where’s the boldness and thrill of Julius Caesar, the other major piece of Roman Shakespeare work?
3.75 / 5
the writing in this play was highly enjoyable and so beautiful, quite different from what Shakespeare usually writes. very entertaining and loved seeing cleopatra gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss her way into getting what she wanted. one bad thing i’ll say is it felt like it dragged on a bit long, but otherwise rly liked it. maybe a proper review to come.
the writing in this play was highly enjoyable and so beautiful, quite different from what Shakespeare usually writes. very entertaining and loved seeing cleopatra gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss her way into getting what she wanted. one bad thing i’ll say is it felt like it dragged on a bit long, but otherwise rly liked it. maybe a proper review to come.
Look, I'll confess: I struggle with reading Shakespeare on the page. It's obvious that these words are meant to be spoken, and his plots can be hard to visualise unless you see them on stage. So Antony and Cleopatra's not a great read in the traditional sense, but there is some gorgeous language, which is really what I signed up for, and Cleopatra herself is a more compelling character than a lot of Shakespeare's women, so this was definitely worth the read.
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
much like my review of As I Lay Dying, I feel like you can sum up this one with "men." Anyway shoutout to Cleo eat that stage up girl
Late tragedy ranging from romance and ecstasy to an autumnal forlornness, poignant in the play’s latter acts. The multifaceted Cleopatra truly, in Charmian’s words, ‘a lass unparalleled’ among Shakespeare’s heroines. Depiction of Rome and the Near East put me in mind of the great nineteenth-century Academic painters: Poynter, Alma-Tadema, et al.
I couldn't really get into this play because the romance wasn't convincing, and it was hard to determine the causality of events. RSC's 1974 production, however, helped me think about Emma Smith's question, Whose tragedy is it? If I were to revisit this play, I would compare the contexts of the many suicides (not just of Antony and Cleopatra, but those of their servants, particularly Enobarbus) and the contexts of A&C's declarations of love for each other. Smith argues that their love is performative, but there are a number of times when A&C are only accompanied by one or two servants.