Scan barcode
A review by chrisdech
Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare
4.0
In the introduction to this edition, it is noted that Antony and Cleopatra has some distinctly comedic elements to it while still being a tragedy. That is not something I can disagree with, for I did find myself openly laughing early in the play. Shakespeare, as always, still manages to balance tension and pacing with beautiful strokes.
When it comes to Shakespeare's Roman plays, I find it a little difficult to fight my biases towards Roman history. At the same time, however, knowing the history helps, I feel, to add to the dramatics within the story. In a way, it adds to the stakes. For example, in Julius Caesar, the events of that play directly lead to the fall of the Republic and the rise of the Empire. So too does this play balance that transitional era, but on a different level. In the former, Brutus fights a conflict between his trust and faith in Caesar with his duty and patriotism for the Republic. In the latter, Antony must choose between his love for Cleopatra or his duty to the Republic and the Triumvirate. And, given the compression of dates and events, I think that makes it all the more dramatic.
I find the characters of Antony and Cleopatra charming: their doomed romance and codependency is beautiful even though the reader/viewer knows they will both die. And one is certainly shown how much they love and depend on one another to a fault, which makes it all the sadder that their story could not have gone any other way.
Perhaps my one gripe with this play is the parts regarding Sextus Pompeius, but that was crucial to showing the crumbling of the Second Triumvirate, so I'll give that a pass. And, besides that, most of the characters besides the title lovers, Enobarbus, Augustus, and Dolabella are really sort of boring in a way that other side characters in other plays are not.
8/10, skill issue, Antony had it coming.
When it comes to Shakespeare's Roman plays, I find it a little difficult to fight my biases towards Roman history. At the same time, however, knowing the history helps, I feel, to add to the dramatics within the story. In a way, it adds to the stakes. For example, in Julius Caesar, the events of that play directly lead to the fall of the Republic and the rise of the Empire. So too does this play balance that transitional era, but on a different level. In the former, Brutus fights a conflict between his trust and faith in Caesar with his duty and patriotism for the Republic. In the latter, Antony must choose between his love for Cleopatra or his duty to the Republic and the Triumvirate. And, given the compression of dates and events, I think that makes it all the more dramatic.
I find the characters of Antony and Cleopatra charming: their doomed romance and codependency is beautiful even though the reader/viewer knows they will both die. And one is certainly shown how much they love and depend on one another to a fault, which makes it all the sadder that their story could not have gone any other way.
Perhaps my one gripe with this play is the parts regarding Sextus Pompeius, but that was crucial to showing the crumbling of the Second Triumvirate, so I'll give that a pass. And, besides that, most of the characters besides the title lovers, Enobarbus, Augustus, and Dolabella are really sort of boring in a way that other side characters in other plays are not.
8/10, skill issue, Antony had it coming.