Preview

Values in Antony and Cleopatra vs the Iron Lady movie

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
411 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Values in Antony and Cleopatra vs the Iron Lady movie
Antony and Cleopatra
The Iron Lady
Duty to the position of power (example: Antony acts on duty to the state when he marries Octavia, but if he honors his heart, he has to be with Cleopatra.)
BUT Cleopatra’s duty is not so well defined
Duty to the position of power
Change is Margaret has a strong sense of duty – her sense of duty is a superior one to the one displayed by Cleopatra
Friendship is also central because so much of the play is about how leaders are nothing without the people that follow them. Cleopatra constantly leans on her servants for support and advice, and Antony is undone as his own men betray him. How we view ourselves is often gauged by how others view us, and their duty to us is a reflection of our own honor.
Friend – her husband
Margaret did not lean on support just leaned on herself – lonely leader (because of this she does not listen to her party and is betrayed by the party)
Love – above all (Cleopatra)
Love – more a duty to her husband - not as strong a value as in Shakespear
Integrity – Cleopatra does not necessarily stand by Antony
Margaret – there is no question of her integrity – superior value
Poetical ending of a love story – empathy of Octavian for their love (they are buried together)
Grim reality of dementia and getting old – empathy for her dementia and regress
Royal blood – born like that (origin)
Persistence & determination - Middle class struggler – who shows that with great effort comes great power

Context = social (2 societies vs 1), political (Phantasy/Illusion vs reality), historical (written much later than the events happened vs written immediately after the events)
The central values were creatively reshaped to fit a more modern society than the Roman one. (time)
The values were reshaped to clearer values typical and well define for the English society of the 20th century. The values in the Shakespearian text were not necessarily true from a historical point of view plus difference in

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    The Roman's godlike worship of Caesar threatens the prominence of the Senate. To retain his dominance Mark Antony chooses to become a close ally to him. Cassius, Brutus, and the other conspirators however, plot Caesar’s demise. In the end, Mark Antony finds high esteem and the conspirators receive banishment and death. The play is an example, or maybe even a warning, that our actions and reactions have real effects. Brutus, Cassius, Casca, Cinna, Trebonius, and Cimber respond swiftly and without thought to Caesar’s rise and pay a heavy price for it in the end. Mark Antony sees the worth in being Caesar’s friend, and their friendship benefits him when Caesar is dead. In the play, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare the principal characters' initial reactions to Caesar’s rise affect their conclusive outcomes.…

    • 669 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Between 500 BCE and 500 CE, the Roman civilization experienced changes both politically and culturally. Firstly, Rome’s government transitioned from a Republic to an Empire. Later, that empire was split into two parts; east and west. In terms of changes in culture, it was impacted by the shift in religion, as the Romans shifted from polytheism to monotheism. Despite all the changes, Rome still remained culturally diverse.…

    • 1420 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Shakespeare depicts love that can empower one to challenge the convention and the tradition in the world in which they live. In the patriarchal society, it is unthinkable for the daughter to defy her parents. Juliet goes against all social restraints when she contradicted her parents with, “I will not marry yet; and when I do, I swear it shall be Romeo.” Even her father’s outburst of rage in “young baggage, disobedient wretch!” did not change her plans. And in the world where names mean more than just a way to address oneself, she advises Romeo to "Deny thy father and refuse thy name… And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.’’ Young Juliet experiences love that gives her courage to challenge all that is expected of a young unmarried lady of noble background. Therefore her love liberates her from the bondage of the social mores of the time.…

    • 782 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In this essay i will discuss how act of Antony and Cleopatra prepare the audience for tragedy. Firstly the character of Antony is one of three who rule Rome after the assassination of Julius Caedar. But Antony’s popularity is shortlived, as Shakespeare’s audience discovers when Act I opens in Alexandria, Egypt, where Antony languishes under the spell of Cleopatra’s incomparable beauty and charm. She spends her every wile and witchery on binding his heart to hers—and the world and Rome be damned.Cleaopatra is the queen of Eqypt. The first three scenes of Act One all take place in Queen Cleopatra's palace, in Alexandria. They establish quickly the conflict between duty and passion, ambition and pleasure, Rome and Egypt.…

    • 955 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    North and South by Gaskell

    • 1278 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Margaret, through her characterization and interactions with the male characters in North and South, both represents the gender role of her time, as well as subverts, and even goes as far as to reverse roles with the opposite gender. Her strong willpower and tendency to be dominant contributes to this.…

    • 1278 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Shakespeare shows us the harsh realities of the life of a woman, as arranged marriage is just another part of the list of expectations,…

    • 225 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    From the start of the play there is a direct contrast between the gendered roles of Antony and Cleopatra. Philo says to Demetrius, Antony has a “captains heart” and is a “pillar of the world” (Act 1, Scene 1, lines 6; 12) while Cleopatra is described as a “lustful gypsy” and “wrangling queen” (Act 1, Scene 1, lines 10; 48). However strong these perceptions may seem…

    • 1818 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Antony and Cleopatra

    • 1046 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Throughout the play, Mark Antony can be seen as a tragic hero. While some of these tragedies are a dirrect result of his inner flaws, namely his impulsiveness, lack of political intrest and desire for Cleopatra, a larger portion originate from people or situations that are beyond his ability to control. This was not the ordinary for Shakespeare's plays, which usually feature a more prominant character flaw, characters that could be considered silly, or even psychotic by today's standards, whereas Antony and Cleopatra's flaws come from worldliness, traits we are able to relate to. The desire for happiness and success as well as the fear of boredom and failure are prominent here and these flaws do not lead to tragedy due to them being bizzare, or foreign, they lead to tragedy simply because the two are succesful enough for these traits to have drastic impacts.…

    • 1046 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Julius Caesar “friendship” is used tactically and is strategic toward the motives of the characters. Trust, the most important aspect of friendship, and flattery are used to deceive and manipulate. This is a recurring theme throughout the play and plays a part in major events that take place.…

    • 570 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    A man for all seaons

    • 535 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Margaret More: She is well-educated and inquisitive daughter of Sir Thomas More. Margaret came the closest to understanding her father reason for not granting the king his demands.…

    • 535 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    William Shakespeare in his play of Antony and Cleopatra has many suggestions on the topic of the attractions and contradictions of the political and erotic life, but also of the suggesting of a third kind of way of life that transcends the political and the erotic ones. Throughout the play Shakespeare presents the emotions between Antony and Cleopatra in many different ways that could be interpreted as love or even perhaps lust at times. Cleopatra was a woman of high maintenance, but yet she did seem to love Antony a lot as she tried everything to keep him with her. At the beginning of this play we see Cleopatra testing Antony’s love for her by saying “If it be love indeed, tell me how much.” This gives the impression of Cleopatra’s demanding nature and her dominant role in the relationship as she is demanding of Antony for a compliment on their love. We continue to see this demanding natures as he states “I’ll set a bourn how far to be loved!” meaning that she will limit the extent of her love. Antony responds to this by saying “Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new earth… Let Rome in Tiber melt.” This declaration from Antony shows that his love is so strong, that he is prepared to ignore Caesar’s demand and his roman duties to stay with her and that there is no limit of their love that can be defined by human knowledge or experience. When Antony is now with Cleopatra he seems to be regretting his position in Egypt and begins to realize that it is actually not love, and that perhaps she is not worth staying away from Rome and Anthony’s duties. “She is cunning past man’s thought” shows that Cleopatra is very clever and possibly playing games with Antony to keep him in Egypt. And truthfully she is doing just that, when she sates “Thou teachest like a fool- the way to lose him.” This proves to us that the most important thing for her is to play hard to get just to ensure that Antony will still love her, and basically it’s the power and temptation that keeps…

    • 1400 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Augustus and Pompey

    • 1753 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Cited: Bai, Ronnie. "Antony and Cleopatra." By Dr Ronnie Bai. Humanities360, 25 May 2010. Web. 17 Dec. 2013…

    • 1753 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    States: “Each character is desperately trying to acquire a stable self-concept.” ->Implies Margaret Atwood has not done this, as she forces them to choose between these identities. However, evidently, seen in Margaret Atwood’s speech, these two sides of a woman exist.…

    • 2937 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout, William Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar, the theme of friendship would prove to be a very delicate and manipulative element. This element would be the very entity that would seal Julius Caesar's fate.…

    • 675 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    According to Cicero (2014), duty refers to moral commitment and it denotes an active feeling for doing something. Once a person engages himself with some duty if he has been entrusted with a duty, then that person fully commits himself to it. In the case of duty, the person will be involved in activity without any self-interest. As a citizen of a country, a person has many duties to perform. It is his duty to adhere to the constitution.…

    • 899 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays