Dissimulative Aspect of Antony’s Love in Antony and Cleopatra

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This paper explores the underlying motive of Antony’s love for Cleopatra from concepts that draw upon philosophical delineations of Eros from Plato’s Phaedrus and textual analysis in Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra. Antony capitalizes on the emotion of love to escape from the banal responsibilities of the stoic Roman soldier and to reinvigorate his sense of being. However, the strong emotion of love that he feels for Cleopatra is a false front, a dissimulative device to redeem his sense of being and to instill a sense of meaning in his otherwise mundane life. Insomuch as the disingenuousness of the love Antony feels, the relationship between the two protagonists is tenuous and is not sustainable. Engrossed in the powerful sensation of love, Antony vicariously feels rejuvenated and finds meaning in life, but it is not long before emotional conflicts driven by his self-serving purpose weigh down on him. The turbulent journey provides him with temporal thrills of life but eventually he is swept up in the cascade of powerful emotions and loses traction in life. The dramatic transition he makes from the once acclaimed Roman general to an archetypal mortal being abnegates the pre-existing image of the great Roman Triumvir. The transition highlights the human elements of Antony and precipitates him to the level of an ordinary middle-aged man faced with a midlife crisis in search of a quick solution through the pretext of being in love.

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