Antony Is a Tragic Hero

Anthony and Cleopatra was written in 1607, following the incredible period that gave us Hamlet, Orthello, King Lear and Macbeth. Although sometimes hard to categorise, some put this play with Julius Caesar and Corialanus, the Roman plays: all three use Plutharch’s lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans as their primary source and all three have concerns steeped in historical and political questions. Shakespeare shows an impressive ability to assimilate the classical world in his own terms and this is partly a tribute to the strength and vitality of Plutarch’s writing. Yet, although Shakespeare alters Plutarch freely to match his own dramatic purposes, Plutarch’s power to speak for his time and place shines through Shakespeare’s adaptations while Shakespeare remains true to the essence of his source, he also deepens what he finds there.

Anthony as a tragic hero poses a problem for criticism. Typically, the hero of a tragedy is engaged in a search for meaning that ultimately about more awareness of the world and of the self, while the unquestioning hero belongs more to the world of comedy. Anthony however, is not the tortured soul who, like Hamlet feels divided between his public and private selves : he feels comfortable as both soldier and lover, but his tragedy turns out to be that the world will not allow him to live in the genial atmosphere of comedy where he belongs. The world as it exists in the play is too narrow and self-limiting to contain Anthony, both Rome and Egypt want to lower him to their levels and he resists. Only a “new heaven new earth ” a world beyond this one offers him a chance of harmony. Anthony comes across as a man who knows the world and has experienced the whims of fortune. His main aim is not to conquer the world, and he doesn’t question the gods as most tragic heroes do. He is aware that he has responsibilities and along with these as a reward comes pleasures. He is the voice of maturity. He rightly asks “my being in Egypt Caesar,