Antony and Cleopatra

A major conflict throughout Antony and Cleopatra is the contrast between the values of Roman society and the values of Egyptian society. William Shakespeare affiliates Rome strongly with order, duty, masculinity, and military prowess, while Egypt is portrayed as sensual, feminine, and chaotic in contrast. The romantic union of Antony and Cleopatra results in both of them taking on certain traits of the other’s culture, often to the distress of the Romans. This notion of Rome as a society based on reason and Egypt as a society based on sensuality foreshadows the later evolution of Orientalism (See: Background)—the stereotypical construction of “the East” by Western Europeans seeking to distinguish their culture from that of their imperial conquests.

Throughout the play, the differences between Rome and Egypt cause conflict that eventually leads to war between the two countries. Initially, the Romans are distressed by Antony’s adoption of “Egyptian” ways, meaning that he enjoys pleasures and luxuries rather than focusing on military discipline. Similarly, Cleopatra is irritated when Antony displays his more “Roman” traits, complaining to her maids that “he was disposed to mirth, but on the sudden / A Roman thought hath struck him” (1.2.87-88, emphasis added). By describing Antony’s willingness to hear political messages as a “Roman thought,” she verbally affiliates the concept of Rome with serious, rational, and unpleasurable work.

Likewise, Antony enjoys the decadence of the Egyptian court, but quickly switches to deriding Egypt’s values when he is betrayed by the Egyptian navy. In a speech that uses slurs and derogatory language, he insults Egypt for being disloyal, metaphorically comparing the nation to an unfaithful woman:

O, this false soul of Egypt! This grave charm,

Whose eye becked forth my wars and called them home,

Whose bosom was my crownet, my chief end,

Like a right gypsy hath at fast and loose

Beguiled me to the very heart of loss (4.12.28-32).

By insulting not just the Egyptian sailors but the “soul” of the country, Antony suggests that the issue is with the culture rather than with individual people. His speech uses racial slurs and misogynistic stereotypes to degrade the culture of Egypt, implying that, despite his earlier infatuation with the country, the Roman ways are ultimately more virtuous.

The end of the play continues this logic of Roman values being upheld as more heroic than the Egyptian values as Cleopatra adopts the Roman tradition of death by suicide to avoid capture. She explicitly describes her act as a Roman behavior, suggesting that she is seeking to emulate her lover Antony after his death: “Let’s do ’t after the high Roman fashion / And make death proud to take us” (4.15.101-2). However, while Cleopatra dies in the “Roman fashion,” she does so to avoid being taken to Rome in a triumph, ironically using Rome’s own methods to subvert its imperial ambitions. By dying as herself, surrounded by symbols of her Egyptian power and luxury, she is able to maintain her identity as Queen of Egypt rather than becoming a symbol of Roman triumph over the East for Caesar. The fascination and the powerful influence that Egypt holds over the Roman characters suggests that the cultural assimilation goes both ways, and that Rome is unable to fully control its eastern provinces.