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    Shakespeare/Antony and Cleopatra

    Number of Pages: 5

     

    Summary of the research paper:

    A 5 page essay that analyzes Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra. The writer argues that in this play the audience is presented with a conflict that involves a clash between cultures, between Rome and Egypt, in so doing, this Elizabethan play offers the modern audience insight into how Shakespeare and his era viewed this ancient clash between East and West. An examination of this political situation as characterized via the personas of Antony and Cleopatra demonstrates that Shakespeare does not definitively side with the Western power, as one might expect, but rather he subtly suggests that the East cannot be easily controlled or subsumed within the power of the West. Bibliography lists 5 sources.

    Name of Research Paper File: D0_khancleo.rtf

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    play offers the modern audience insight into how Shakespeare and his era viewed this ancient clash between East and West. An examination of this political situation as characterized via the  personas of Antony and Cleopatra demonstrates that Shakespeare does not definitively side with the Western power, as one might expect, but rather he subtly suggests that the East cannot be  easily controlled or subsumed within the power of the West. First of all, it is generally realized by critical opinion that Shakespeare, as McJannet puts it, reconstructed "English or  Roman history from the perspective of his own historical moment" (1). In other words, Shakespeares version of history tells the modern reader little of the actual motivation of these historic  characters, but rather informs the modern student a great deal concerning how the Elizabethans viewed ancient Rome and its relation to the East. The clash between cultures in this  play is symbolized by the characters that inhabit these separate spheres. Caesar, in particular, embodies the stoic duty of the West. Antony does as well, but only to a certain  extent, because he primarily demonstrates having strayed from this moral paradigm and Cleopatra symbolizes what Shakespearean England saw as the free-flowing sensuality of the East. Shakespeare offers a  variety of perspectives on Cleopatra, which serve to inform the audiences comprehension of her as a decadent foreign woman. When Philo and Demetrius come on stage in the first  scene of Act I, their remarks concerning Antony neglecting his duties serves to frame the audiences initial understanding of Cleopatra as the woman for whom Antony is willing to risk  his reputation. Various men declare Cleopatra to be a lustful "gipsy" (I.i.10), a "wrangling queen" (I.i.50), a "slave" (I.iv.19), an "Egyptian dish" (II.vi.123) and a "whore" (III.vi.67). However, to perceive 

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