Antony and Cleopatra Theme

Fate, Destiny, Inevitability, or Historical Necessity
In Antony and Cleopatra, the chain of events is made to seem more predetermined than in most of Shakespeare's plays. Although many of the plays use expectation and prophecy and fulfillment, every event in this play is foreshadowed either by soothsayers or savvy observers like Enobarbus. Historical necessity, which would have one man alone rule Rome, seems to conspire to send Antony and Octavius head to head. And from the beginning, even someone with no prior knowledge of the story sees clearly that Octavius will win. Personal agency seems limited, and the suicides of the lovers near the end seem to be a final act of self-assertion, the only possible act left to them, in the face of historical necessity.
Shakespeare is dealing with history, so he can make events seem fated, but the Soothsayer and his dire predictions are taken from Plutarch. The use of the soothsayer underscores the theme of destiny, which in a play based on historical events can be viewed in different ways. To us, the defeat of Antony is inevitable, fated, because it has already happened. The soothsayer's presence adds a sinister inevitability to a historical event playing out before us. Historical forces become conflated with less rational conceptions of destiny and fate. Because of the soothsayer's presence, history itself takes on a supernatural element, being beyond the control or explanation of men.

The Struggle Between Reason and Emotion

In his opening lines to Demetrius, Philo complains that Antony has abandoned the military endeavors on which his reputation is based for Cleopatra’s sake. His criticism of Antony’s “dotage,” or stupidity, introduces a tension between reason and emotion that runs throughout the play (I.i.1). Antony and Cleopatra’s first exchange heightens this tension, as they argue whether their love can be put into words and understood or whether it exceeds such faculties and boundaries of reason. If, according to Roman consensus, Antony is the military hero and disciplined statesmen that Caesar and others believe him to be, then he seems to have happily abandoned his reason in order to pursue his passion. He declares: “Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide arch / Of the ranged empire fall” (I.i.35–36). The play, however, is more concerned with the battle between reason and emotion than the triumph of one over the other, and this battle is waged most forcefully in the character of Antony. More than any other character in the play, Antony vacillates between Western and Eastern sensibilities, feeling pulled by both his duty to the empire and his desire for pleasure, his want of military glory and his passion for Cleopatra. Soon after his nonchalant dismissal of Caesar’s messenger, the empire, and his duty to it, he chastises himself for his neglect and commits to return to Rome, lest he “lose [him]self in dotage” (I.ii.106).

As the play progresses, Antony continues to inhabit conflicting identities that play out the struggle between reason and emotion. At one moment, he is the vengeful war hero whom Caesar praises and fears. Soon thereafter, he sacrifices his military position by unwisely allowing Cleopatra to determine his course of action. As his Roman allies—even the ever-faithful Enobarbus—abandon him, Antony feels that he has, indeed, lost himself in dotage, and he determines to rescue his noble identity by taking his own life. At first, this course of action may appear to be a triumph of reason over passion, of -Western sensibilities over Eastern ones, but the play is not that simple. Although Antony dies believing himself a man of honor, discipline, and reason, our understanding of him is not nearly as straight-forward. In order to come to terms with Antony’s character, we must analyze the aspects of his identity that he ignores. He is, in the end, a man ruled by passion as much as by reason. Likewise, the play offers us a worldview in which one sensibility cannot easily dominate another. Reason cannot ever fully conquer the passions, nor can passion wholly undo reason.

Choices

Sex and passion are central to Antony and Cleopatra for its role in the main characters’ relationship, but also to how the pair makes the decisions that will ripple into their personal and political lives. Essential questions are raised about whether passion is a debilitating or empowering force in love and politics. Passion is especially important when it comes to decision-making in the play: decisions made in haste are often foolish, or impermanent. The interplay between passion and reason is often at stake, as to whether passion interferes with, or can augment, reason.
Rome versus Egypt
Shakespeare constantly juxtaposes the world of Egypt with the world of Rome. The leaps in space are greater here then in any Shakespearean play: we move from Egypt to Rome to Athens to other parts of the world in a matter of moments. Shakespeare uses Rome and Egypt to deal with a number of themes, organized in terms of oppositions: change versus the status quo, martial values versus self-indulgence, masculine authority versus feminine authority, the values of an erstwhile Republic versus the values of despotism.
These binaries reflect not just qualities inherent in the two places, but the changes that come upon Antony depending on which place he is in. Antony, in some ways, is one man in Egypt and a different one in Rome. Egypt is an exotic frontier, a welcome escape from a life of soldiership and civic duty. In Egypt, Antony rules basically as a king, the kind of king known better for his self-indulgence than his administrative abilities. Parallels can be drawn to other places throughout history: many men, away from home serving the interests of empire, have created lives of decadent pleasure. From Romans in Egypt to debauched Frenchmen in Indochina, imperial frontiers have provided men with escape and luxury, and a freedom that could never be possible for them in their homelands. Antony is torn between duty and passion, soldiership and self-indulgence, political ambition and love of life for it's sensual pleasures. Antony seems to delight in Egypt as an escape from his Roman self. In the East, Antony is able to indulge impulses that Romans disdain, even if these impulses fascinate them.

The Clash of East and West

Although Antony and Cleopatra details the conflict between Rome and Egypt, giving us an idea of the Elizabethan perceptions of the difference between Western and Eastern cultures, it does not make a definitive statement about which culture ultimately triumphs. In the play, the Western and Eastern poles of the world are characterized by those who inhabit them: Caesar, for instance, embodies the stoic duty of the West, while Cleopatra, in all her theatrical grandeur, represents the free-flowing passions of the East. Caesar’s concerns throughout the play are certainly imperial: he means to invade foreign lands in order to invest them with traditions and sensibilities of his own. But the play resists siding with this imperialist impulse. Shakespeare, in other words, does not align the play’s sympathies with the West; Antony and Cleopatra can hardly be read as propaganda for Western domination. On the contrary, the Roman understanding of Cleopatra and her kingdom seems exceedingly superficial. To Caesar, the queen of Egypt is little more than a whore with a flair for drama. His perspective allows little room for the real power of Cleopatra’s sexuality—she can, after all, persuade the most decorated of generals to follow her into ignoble retreat. Similarly, it allows little room for the indomitable strength of her will, which she demonstrates so forcefully at the end of the play as she refuses to allow herself to be turned into a “Egyptian puppet” for the entertainment of the Roman masses (V.ii.204).
In Antony and Cleopatra, West meets East, but it does not, regardless of Caesar’s triumph over the land of Egypt, conquer it. Cleopatra’s suicide suggests that something of the East’s spirit, the freedoms and passions that are not represented in the play’s conception of the West, cannot be subsumed by Caesar’s victory. The play suggests that the East will live on as a visible and unconquerable counterpoint to the West, bound as inseparably and eternally as Antony and Cleopatra are in their tomb.
Duty and Honor
Antony is never able to reconcile his Roman duty with his human passions. Rome is a land that prizes duty very highly. His love for Cleopatra completely undoes his character as a soldier. When he fails at Actium to live up to his duty to his men, part of him dies.
For Romans, honor and duty are closely linked. The Roman definition of honor is a highly masculine one, with very different standards for men and women. Much less is expected of Cleopatra than of Antony.
Different characters are motivated or restrained by their definition of honor at different points in the play. Enobarbus, Antony, Pompey, Cleopatra, and Octavius are characters to watch for different takes on the meaning of honor. Enobarbus sees honor as loyalty between friends, and his failure to live up to that precept leads to his death from grief. Antony sees too late that his honor as a Roman is tied to duty, and tries to salvage his honor through his valor as a warrior. Pompey prizes his honor highly enough to sacrifice ultimate power for principle. Octavius dispenses with loyalty, and works from a definition of honor closely tied to ambition. His duty is to destiny itself. Cleopatra has no understanding of Roman conceptions of honor, and is often baffled by Antony as he becomes unhinged, being unable to understand the principles he has failed to uphold. But she has her own idea of honor, one centered on the glamour and individuality of her own persona. This kind of honor, centered on herself, means she will not allow Caesar to parade her through Rome as a trophy.

Contrasting Regions

The play is set up as an interaction between Rome and Alexandria, Egypt. That the settings mirror each other is a convenient device to interpret the meaning of the characters’ actions. Values, morals and meanings are changed with each setting in the play, and the interaction of these places is a way to understand the struggles that Antony has to go through, while also informing how Cleopatra acts and makes judgments. Contrasting regions provide a lens of interpretation that is neither good nor bad, but depends on regional values and differences.

Love

Love is a central theme of the play because it’s always in question. Unlike the romantic stories of Shakespeare, the foundation of this play is tragedy. Love fails in the end (because the lovers can’t be together), but is upheld by the lovers’ loyalty to each other. The characters’ actions and reactions to one other are all informed by love’s effect on decision-making – specifically, love’s ability to blind people to reason where love is concerned, and the constant fear of losing love.

Masculine order versus feminine order

The court of Cleopatra is woman-centered. Rome is a very masculine world. Rome is obsessed with duty and militaristic virtues, and anxiety about being dominated by women is rampant. Alexandria is a world of pleasure, where the female sovereign's rule is uncontested. While the Romans express disgust with Cleopatra's hold on Antony, and eagerly dismiss her as a manipulative whore, their fascination with her is obvious. When Antony and his men return to Rome, many of the Roman soldiers are hungry for tales of Egypt's wonders, the greatest wonder of all being Cleopatra.

Betrayal

Characters in Antony and Cleopatra often have to choose between being loyal to their ideals and being loyal to their circumstances. Loyalty is central to a lot of the relationships in the play, but betrayal always hangs near as a frightening fact when so much power is at stake. Characters’ loyalty to one another is constantly called into question by their quick betrayals of one another, and the question of whether loyalty is an enduring feeling is raised as a result.

Virtues of a Republic versus despotism

Rome is a former Republic with a tradition of citizenship. Egypt is a land of sovereign and subject. Enobarbus is subordinate to Antony, but both are Romans, and Enobarbus is allowed to speak his mind. Antony encourages messengers to speak freely to him. In the same situation, Cleopatra has no qualms about beating the bearer of bad news. A Roman leader must cater to the mob; Cleopatra appears to her people dressed as a goddess, and has no need to curry their favor.

Transformation

Transformation is a tricky theme in Antony and Cleopatra. Because characters seem to transform at the drop of a hat, the legitimacy of these transformations is always in question. In the end, we’re not sure if the characters have transformed, or merely acted rashly in accordance with their passions. Further, we have to ask whether the characters want to transform, or whether they’re victims of their circumstances.

Guilt and Blame

Regret and repentance thread through much of Antony and Cleopatra because betrayal is so often at stake. Characters can be redeemed by their feelings of regret, and we can judge the earnestness of their feelings by their willingness to repent. Regret is also another way of introducing a different perspective in the play. That each character could experience regret reminds us that their judgments aren’t hard and fast. Instead, each of them is a person capable of making mistakes, and they are all made more human by their ability to recognize and repent those mistakes.