Textual analysis of “Antony and Cleopatra” by W. Shakespeare ( Act I, scenes I-II)

In the present text I’m going to analyze the first and the second scenes of Shakespeare’s play “Antony and Cleopatra”. The play opens in Alexandria, in one of the rooms of Cleopatra's palace. As he usually did in all is plays Shakespear started “Antony and Cleopatra” with a middle-conversation: Philo is telling to Demetrius how Antony has changed his behavior since he fell in love with Cleopatra. At the beggining he describes Antony with war references “That o’er of the war have glowed like plated Mars” and then he connotate him in a negative way “reneges all temper and is become the bellows and and the fan to cool a gypsy’s lust”, “ you shall see in him the triple pillar of the world transofrmed into a strumper’s fool”. Shakespeare used language to create interesting or exciting situation to keep audience’s attention high.
After this initial dialogue Antony and Cleopatra enter the scene, in this part of the act the main theme is the conflict between love and war affairs: first Cleopatra asks Antony to confirm his love. As Antony and Cleopatra talk, both of them use exaggerated language to swear that their love is greater than any other love in the world. In this act, however, Shakespeare's emphasis is clearly on Antony's current displeasure with political matters. Indeed when Antony discover that the messenger bring a message from Rome he doesn’t want to know who is the mittent or what the message says even if Cleopatra says to him that it could be important ( the mittent cuold be Caesar or Fulvia). Antony stays on his position “Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide arch of the ranged empire fall! Here is my space. Kingdoms are clay. Our dungy earth alike feeds beast aas man. The nobleness of life is to do thus- when such a mutual pair and such a twain can do’t, in which I bind, on pain of punishment, the world to weet we stand up peerless”. From this sentence audience could understand that there is and indirect conflict between Antony and Romans in particular with Caesar: Antony and Cleopatra’s opening points to future difficulties, in this way the audience could image what is goint to happen.
The second scene introduces us to some of the minor characters, and it also includes a conversation about the nature of love. Thus, the main theme of the play remains in the foreground.
Cleopatra's troubled comments about Antony's change of mood are characterized by her reference to Antony's "Roman thought." The term "Roman" is used because it was believed that the Romans as a nation were typically serious and devoted to duty thus, here, Cleopatra may be suggesting that Antony's thought was consistent with that sort of character; another possibility is that Antony was reminded of business which had to do with Rome — that is, his thoughts were about Rome; he literally had a "Roman thought."
When Antony find out that his wife, Fulvia, is dead: he sees her in a different way. His “Roman soul” comes out: “The buisness she hath broached in the state cannot endure my absence”.
In conclusion, the second scenebasically shows the conflicting Antony’s desires. He feels torn between his duties at home and his love for Cleopatra. We also see contrasted in this scene the frivolity and the sensuality of life in Egypt and serious world of the Romans, dominated by politics, not by love.