Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T09:00:31.789Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 4 - Make War, Not Love

Antony and Cleopatra

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 November 2021

James Gilligan
Affiliation:
New York University
David A.J. Richards
Affiliation:
NYU Law School
Get access

Summary

Antony and Cleopatra dramatizes the fact that there is room only for war, not love, in an extreme shame culture, such as the Roman Empire. Their suicides were motivated partly to avoid being shamed in Octavian’s “triumph” in Rome, but more importantly because it was only by dying together, and in response to each other, that they could avoid being separated from each other. Enobarbus illustrates the fact that guilt feelings also motivate suicide, so guilt is no solution to the problem of violence. Ironically, the main losers in this tragedy may have been the putative victor and his associates, who were incapable of love, and hence life, on the scale and intensity that Antony and Cleopatra achieved with each other.

Type
Chapter
Information
Holding a Mirror up to Nature
Shame, Guilt, and Violence in Shakespeare
, pp. 78 - 82
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×