Shakespeare's "Anthony and Cleopatra" begins and ends with a banquet. The play opens with the image of Anthony and Cleopatra arm in arm, talking about how much they love one another in the context of revelry and feasting in Egypt. The play ends with Cleopatra, alone with her handmaids, being consumed by an asp. "Will it eat me?" she asks the asp-seller in the final act. (5.2.263) It is a fitting end to a play that uses food as a metaphor throughout its dialogue as a measure of how excessive various characters are in love and in politics.
Cleopatra in particular uses food frequently to express her love for Anthony. She not only does this physically over the course of the play, using banquets and strong drink as a way of celebrating his return and whiling the hours away when he is in Rome. Everything is something to be consumed in Cleopatra's eyes, and food also functions verbally as metaphor for her love and her desire to possess Anthony completely and utterly. "Give me some music, moody food/Of us that trade in love." (2.5.1) However, in the eyes of some of the other characters in the play Cleopatra is herself a kind of food. Enobarbus, Anthony's trusted friend states: "Other women cloy/The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry/Where most she satisfies." (2.2.241-244)
Unsurprisingly, given his love for this exotic 'dish,' Anthony is a hedonist by nature, in stark contrast to his ally (eventually his enemy) Octavius Caesar. In the drinking scene with Lepidus, Anthony toasts: "It [the wine] ripens towards it. / Strike the vessels, ho! / Here's to Caesar! But Caesar responds:" I could well forbear't/It's monstrous labor when I wash my brain/An it grow fouler." Even in a toast drunk to him in his own name, Caesar is revolted by over-consumption, particularly of grape and of alcohol. He makes clear he is only drinking because he hopes to construct a military alliance with the other, less disciplined revelers at the party. This ascetic quality in Caesar's nature helps set up the dichotomy created between Rome and Egypt throughout the play. Within the context of the play,...
Cleopatra's death tragic or triumphant? Explain in reference to text Is Cleopatra's death tragic or triumphant? As a character, Shakespeare's Cleopatra is both sublimely sensual and sublimely ridiculous. She is described early on as beautiful and exotic by one of Mark Anthony's solder but also dangerous to his manhood and reputation: "The buckles on his breast, reneges all temper, / And is become the bellows and the fan / To cool
Cleopatra and the Fall of Egypt Cleopatra life started around 69 B.C. through to 30 B.C. And her reign started around 51 B.C. till the time of her death which was around 30 B.C. She was almost certainly the most unforgettable queen ever seen in the land of Egypt. She was felt as far as the Roman Empire as she affected the Empire by bringing down the Roman Empire leaders on
Their relationship proved beneficial for both of them and the reciprocity is beyond any doubt. She understood the weaknesses of her state, but that did not stop her from seeking the ways to overcome them. She allied with the most powerful empire of that time, by conquering two of its most important politicians: Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. While her relationship with Julius Caesar appeared to be less under
Although Cleopatra is described as once being beautiful, her racial identity as an Egyptian and her representation of darkness and a darker form of sensuality is unmistakable. The queen admits this herself, even validating the blackness as ugliness stereotyping -- "Think on me,/That am with Phoebus' amorous pinches black,/and wrinkled deep in time?" (I.5) But although the North African woman may be more desirable than Octavia in her form and
Indeed, they are both supporter of Communism and here we are already talking about the mature period of Communist in its fight against the Imperialists (certainly, these are the same imperialists that would have paid Rivera for painting Rockefeller Centre) and the meeting between the couple and Trotsky is defining for the late phase of their relationship. Artistic practices and values Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath and Frida and Diego are
However, there was also an embrace of past, existing forms of Mediterranean literary ideals, such as the Italian sonnet form that became the Elizabethan sonnet form. The latter modified the original Italian sonnet's rhythmical constraints for the English language. The focus upon Italy was not simply intellectual but was also aesthetic. The ideal of the beauty of Italy, and the passionate atmosphere of the land is evidenced in such plays
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