ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, ACT I, SCENE I AND SCENE II

The text I’m going to analyse belongs to the historical tragedy “Antonio e Cleopatra” written by William Shakespeare, in particular the first and the second scenes of act I.

Right from the title the reader can suppose that this is a historical tragedy because Antony and Cleopatra were historical characters and they represent the Roman and the Egyptian culture. The function of the scenes is to introduce and present the characters in psychological trades.

The scenes are set in Cleopatra’s palace, in Alexandria, in Egypt. It starts with Philo and Demetrius, two Roman soldiers followers and friends of Antony, that discuss how their general, Mark Antony, has fallen in love with the Egyptian queen, Cleopatra, and has lost interest in his role as one of the three triumvirs of the Roman Empire. Shakespeare opens the play with a conversation, so the audience is 'in media res' right from the beginning. Moreover the audience receives a negative impression of the protagonist expressed by a friend of him (Philo). The negative judgement is conveyed by words like “overflow” and “tawny front” that are referred to the loss of the measure of Antony and his attraction to Cleopatra. Indeed Antony is not behaving in according to his status, the emotions of the general dominate the rational part of him.

Cleopatra and Antony enter, the queen imploring Antony to describe how much he loves her, when a messenger from Rome arrives. So Shakespeare captures the interest and the imagination of the audience right from the first scene of the play, as he is used to do in his plays.  When the messenger arrives, Antony says that he has no interest in hearing Roman news, but Cleopatra tells him that he must listen. When she exhorts him to return to Rome, Antony says that Rome means nothing to him. He says that is his duty stay in Alexandria and love Cleopatra. The queen doubts the sincerity of his sentiment, her suggestions that Antony hear the news from Rome are unheeded, and the couple exits together. In the first scene Shakespeare make the audience understand there are lots of conflicts between Antonio and the Romans.

The second scene starts with Cleopatra’s attendants that ask fortune-teller, to reveal their futures. Cleopatra joins them while a messenger reports to Antony that Fulvia, his wife, is dead. Antony comments that he long wanted his wife’s death but now he wishes her alive again.Enobarbus, Antony's attendant and friend, arrives and tries to comfort Antony, worried that his devotion to Cleopatra is responsible for these events. Antonio seems to understands what his Cleopatra’s effect to him, indeed he says to Enobarbus that Cleopatra is cunning past man’s thought, but Enobarbus repeat that her passions are made of nothing but the finest part of pure love.There is a difference between Philo’s words and Enobarbus ones, that underline the different point of view of Romans friend and an Egyptian one. The second one, indeed, convey and transmit to the audience a positive image of Antony.
Antony decides to break away from Cleopatra and return to Rome because Sextus Pompeius, is attempting to take control of the seas from the triumvirs. In this scene Shakespeare introduces the new Roman civil wars and the catastrophe of his wife death.He also introduced the contrast among love and war, that cause death. Shakespeare decided to create an opening scene using this conflict, because in this way the audience will be curious to know what will happen next.