Literature Flashcards

"Show me, my women, like a queen. Go fetch my best attires. I am again for Cydnus to meet Mark Antony… To play till doomsday. Bring our crown and all."

Cleopatra to her servants

5.2 - After being captured and put in captivity by Caesar's soldiers, Shakespeare endorses Cleopatra's honor and bravery as she contemplates how to kill herself as to not surrender to Caesar.

symbol/connotations of performance + the irony in her being a queen emphasizes her performance/façade of power in response to Caesar's cruel plan to humiliate her.

By evoking empathy for Cleopatra's situation - especially as Caesar plans to performatively parade her - Shakespeare invites audiences to endorse this display of power/authority, asserting that noble performativity can be justified/seen as honourable.

Oxymoron of play and doomsday - play = unserious, certainty of doomsday → demonstrates her bravery and lack of fear.

Bringing a crown = detachment from herself + a prop/weapon, demonstrates her control and choice/internal sovereignty in her reaction/image.

"The very dice obey [Caesar], and in our sports my better cunning faints under his chance. If we draw lots, he speeds; his cocks do win the battle still of mine when it is all to naught, and his quails ever beat mine, inhooped, at all odds. I will to Egypt: And though I make this marriage for my peace, I' th' East my pleasure lies."

Antony

2.3 - Despite marrying Octavia in Rome, Antony decides he wants to return to Cleopatra in Egypt.

Diction of luck in “dice” and “odds”, with ideas of fate and chance, suggest that Antony is a victim of circumstance.

The irony in suggesting that his “marriage” goes against his “pleasure” demonstrates Antony’s performativity and fragmented identity.

Animalistic imagery of “cocks” and “quails” demonstrate control and power → Caesar’s power is stronger than Antony’s

"all the charms of love, salt Cleopatra, soften thy waned lip! Let witchcraft join with beauty, lust with both; Tie up the libertine in a field of feasts… Epicurean cooks sharpen with cloyless sauce his appetite, that sleep and feeding may prorogue his honour even till a Lethe'd dullness."

Pompey to Menas

2.1 - In Sicily, Pompey suspects that the Triumvirate may unite against him.

salt = lustful

cloyless → connotations of being appealing/desired (delicious)

Epicurus = ancient philosopher who endorsed promiscuity

prorogue = pause

“Libertine”, referring to Antony, is a person who lives for pleasure and excess.

The diction of (food/feasting) acts as dramatic irony as Pompey is suggesting that A&C are greedy but it is his own greed that causes his downfall. This is as Pompey views Antony’s absence from Rome and infatuation with Cleopatra as his chance to seize power.

Diction of the supernatural in “charms” and “witchcraft” suggest that Cleopatra is malevolent as this was looked down on in Jacobean times.

“Lethe” is a Greek mythological river in the underworld that causes people to forget their memories as punishment, suggesting malevolence.

"He will to his Egyptian dish again. Then shall the sighs of Octavia blow the fire up in Caesar, and… that which is the strength of their amity shall prove the immediate author of their variance. Antony will use his affection where it is. He married but his occasion here."

Enobarbus to Menas

2.6 - Pompey settles on making a peace treaty with the Triumvirate. Enobarbus believes that Antony will ruin everything with his infatuation for Cleopatra.

Juxtaposition of “amity” and “variance” demonstrates that Antony’s disloyalty towards his duty completely flips and destructs Roman strength and stability.

Symbol of food in “dish” implies enjoyment and Egyptian luxury/excess to demonstrate that Antony rejects Roman values.

“married but his occasion” → married for political purposes only

"Vanish, or I shall give thee thy deserving and blemish Caesar’s triumph… The shirt of Nessus is upon me… with those hands that grasped the heaviest club subdue my worthiest self. The witch shall die."

Antony to Cleopatra

4.12 - When Antony discovers that the Egyptian fleet surrendered from the battle against Caesar, Shakespeare criticizes his misogynistic views as he insults Cleopatra.

Nessus → Greek mythological character who caused Hecules' death

Hercules is famous for having a “club”

subdue = overpower/defeat

“Caesar’s triumph” suggests that Antony doesn’t have power in Rome

The reader is positioned to criticize/condemn Antony’s fragmented identity, through his Roman viewpoints despite his lack of Roman strength and power, as the catalyst of his downfall.

"How this Herculean Roman does become the carriage of his chafe"

Cleopatra

1.3 - In Alexandria, Cleopatra tests Antony's love for her.

“carriage” → a tool that is used

“chafe” carries ideas of injury and weakness

Oxymoron of “Hercules” with “carriage” and “chafe” demonstrates the division of Antony’s identity and ridicules his performativity.