Explore how Shakespeare develops Essay

Explore how Shakespeare develops the themes of duty, responsibility, love and loyalty in the â€Å"Antony and Cleopatra†. Throughout the play â€Å"Antony and Cleopatra†, Shakespeare develops and explores the themes of duty, responsibility, love and loyalty; from the very beginning of the play Shakespeare places these themes in conflict with one another and these conflicts are embodied in the most obvious sense through Antony’s rejection of the Roman Empire and its ideals for the love of Cleopatra and a far more frivolous laid back life in Egypt. And in turn these differences in ideals are conveyed to the audience in the beginning of the first act when Philo and Demetrius come to the stage and discuss Antony’s â€Å"dotage† over Cleopatra and how it â€Å"O’erflows the measure. † Philo laments at how Antony, once a powerful warrior, triumvir of the Roman Empire and a â€Å"triple pillar of the world† has given up all this power and become â€Å"the bellows and the fan [that] cool a gipsy’s lust†. The language used by Shakespeare at this point in the play helps to establish the antithetical nature of the Egyptians and the Romans; Philo describes Antony with powerful hyperboles and metaphors, evoking potent superhuman, heroic imagery as he speaks of Antony’s eyes that glowed like â€Å"plated mars†, passionately and verbosely referring to his â€Å"captain’s heart† which was so powerful that it â€Å"burst the buckles on his breast. † The conviction with which Philo speaks brings the political and war faring nature of the Romans to the forefront and it becomes clear that the world Antony used to occupy is greatly at odds with the world he now inhabits with Cleopatra who is derogatorily described as having a â€Å"tawny front† (highlighting the Romans’ latent racial prejudices) and whose â€Å"gipsy’s lust† has reduced Antony to a â€Å"strumpet’s fool†. Philo never once uses positive words or language to describe the love between Antony and his queen; he constantly uses words that undermine the actual power she has a queen. The potency of his hatred for Cleopatra is conveyed eloquently through his use of language; Philo makes it obvious that in Rome intangible emotions such as love are undervalued in comparison to the far more corporeal physicality of â€Å"great fights† and the â€Å"musters of war. † It is very obvious that Philo does not view the relationship between Antony and Cleopatra as a great or Romantic but one of blind and foolish lust which has distracted Antony from his responsibilities and his duty. Furthermore, when Antony himself speaks of his love for Cleopatra the contrast between his former Roman ideals and his new Egyptian way of thinking become clearer, his first line to Cleopatra as he enters the stage is â€Å"There’s beggary in the love that can be reckoned†, implying that his love for her is immeasurable and takes precedence above all, the fact this is powerful and Romantic statement is the very first thing Antony says as he enters the stage magnifies the sentiment behind it. Further evidence of the greatness of Antony’s love for Cleopatra is given when she chides him about the messenger from Rome who may be carrying a message from Caesar or his wife Fulvia, both of whom represent his responsibilities at home and both of whom he dismisses in his grand and dramatic statements that he provides her in response to her teasing (â€Å"let Rome in Tiber melt and the wide arch of the ranged empire fall!†), reassuring her that the two of them and their love for each other â€Å"stand up peerless. † It is Antony’s use of imagery here that really encapsulates the depth of his love for Cleopatra, his acknowledgment of the greatness of Rome has a paradoxical quality to it as he confirms the greatness of its â€Å"wide arch† in the same breath and sentence as he confirms it.