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Antony and Cleopatra
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Act VChapter Summaries & Analyses
Act V, Scene 1 Summary
Messengers bring word of Antony’s death to Caesar, who is shocked. After learning that Antony has taken his own life, Caesar laments that they were men equal in greatness and in worthiness to rule an empire, but that fate had divided them and set them at odds. He commands his soldiers to go to Cleopatra and show her mercy and gentleness. He wants to avoid having her die by suicide as well so that she can be brought back to Rome as a symbol of his triumph.
Act V, Scene 2 Summary
Caesar’s messenger Proculeius comes to Cleopatra, reassuring her that Caesar will allow her son to rule Egypt and will be kind to her if she agrees to return with him to Rome. His soldiers infiltrate Cleopatra’s monument and capture Cleopatra before she can kill herself with a dagger. Cleopatra fights back, seeking to avoid being humiliated in Rome as part of Caesar’s triumphal parade.
Dolabella comes to talk with her and she tells him of a dream she had where Antony was a giant. Dolabella admits that Caesar does intend to display her in the triumph, but tells her that submitting to Caesar’s will can save her children. Cleopatra is brought to Caesar and gives him everything in her treasury, despite the reluctances of her treasurer. Caesar tells her that he does not desire her wealth and then leaves her with her maids. Cleopatra is skeptical of Caesar’s intentions.
Cleopatra tells Charmian and Iras of how they will be mocked and molested during the triumph, inspiring them to join her in death. A simple farmer smuggles in a poisonous asp in a basket of figs, warning them of the snake’s deadly bite. Cleopatra dresses in her finest clothing and applies poison to her lips. She kisses her maids goodbye and Iras dies. Cleopatra then places the snake to her breast, allowing it to bite her. She says that her death is gentle and painless. As Caesar’s guards rush in, Charmian also kills herself using the snake’s poison and dies. Caesar commends Cleopatra’s bravery and royal nature and orders that she should be buried next to Antony.
Act V Analysis
The final Act of Antony and Cleopatra establishes the greatness of both lovers, suggesting that their deaths are a worthy turning point in the history of humankind and enabling them to transcend The Complications of Public Identity. While the previous Act focused on the tragedy of Antony’s death and the desperate circumstances that pushed both him and Cleopatra to decide that dying would be preferrable to surviving, the conclusion of the play shifts to considering the impressive glory of the couple. Shakespeare’s focus on Cleopatra in particular is interesting as a model of female sovereignty, as her death is not simply the result of wifely love for Antony, but also her desire to subvert Caesar’s attempt to dominate her.
Shakespeare has Caesar comment upon the greatness of Antony and Cleopatra despite the fact that he is their enemy, suggesting that their nobility is so apparent that even a foe must acknowledge it. When Caesar learns of Antony’s death, he does not celebrate his victory, but rather declares:
The breaking of so great a thing should make
A greater crack. The round world
Should have shook lions into civil streets
And citizens to their dens. The death of Antony
Is not a single doom; in the name lay
A moiety of the world (5.1.17-22).
This speech indicates that Antony’s death will be a turning point in human history. With these words, Caesar is both demonstrating his respect for Antony as a fallen opponent, but also subtly portraying his own rise to power as a significant and transformative event. If Antony’s death could break the world, he implies, then Caesar will be the first leader of a new and different Rome.
Cleopatra also emphasizes the larger-than-life significance of Antony as part of her own attempt to subvert Caesar. She combines her romantic love for Antony with a tone of reverence when she says, “Nature wants stuff / To vie strange forms with fancy, yet t’ imagine / An Antony were nature’s piece ’gainst fancy / Condemning shadows quite” (5.2.120-23). Describing Antony as a dream come to life or a heroic concept embodied, Cleopatra hints at why she cannot survive in captivity with Caesar: If she renounces such a perfect man, she will lower herself.
Cleopatra’s death by suicide is, unlike Antony’s, not a rash or sudden action. She meticulously plans it once she realizes that Caesar intends to dishonor her as a captive by parading her through the streets of Rome. Her death is not caused by a misunderstanding or emotional outburst; she determines that the only way to maintain her identity as a great queen is to die, posing herself upon a throne in all of her regalia. Her refusal to submit to the Roman, masculine authority of Caesar also enables her to perform The Subversion of Gender Roles one last time, with Cleopatra asserting her own proud will and power even in death.
In the speech she gives before poisoning herself with an asp—a symbol that has previously been associated with her own cunning (See: Symbols & Motifs)—she speaks of her “immortal longings” (5.2.336) and wishes to transform into “fire and air” (5.2.344). These words suggest that she views death as an ascension to higher glory, or even as a sort of spiritual wedding to Antony when she declares, “Husband, I come! / Now to that name my courage prove my title” (5.2.342-43). Shakespeare indicates that Cleopatra’s death is an act that solidifies her greatness, providing her with a way to still defeat Caesar despite Antony’s military loss.
In the final speech of the play, Caesar’s words explore the relationship between tragedy and admiration. While this play is typically categorized into the genre of tragedy, Caesar’s words suggest that the ending of the play might not inspire feelings of grief in the viewer. He declares, “High events as these / Strike those that make them; and their story is / No less in pity than his glory which / Brought them to be lamented” (5.2.431-34). Caesar claims that the highness of Antony and Cleopatra’s deaths makes the story both pitiful and glorious to witness, suggesting that the sadness in seeing these events comes about as a result of how impressive Antony and Cleopatra both were as people. Rather than a tragedy that provokes pity because of the weakness or vulnerability of its characters, Antony and Cleopatra is a tragedy that inspires sadness due to the characters’ magnificence.
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By William Shakespeare
