POWERPLAY IN ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA

POLITICAL POWER
Politics is the science and art of government and politic is to be
wise, expedient, scheming, and crafty. These definitions point to two
qualities you need to wield political power: wisdom and cunning.
Caesar, Antony and Lepidus shared power over the Roman world. A
fundamental source of interest in the powerplay in Antony and
Cleopatra is the move from shared to individual power.
The ousting of opponents and the concentration of power in
individual hands is as old as man himself. Example, Stalin
outmaneuvered and ousted Trotsky. Example, our own system of
government, we frequently witness politicians gathering numbers
and challenging party leaders when the time seems right. (Julia
Gillard, Malcolm Turnbull)
The leaders of the ancient world behaved in a more expansive
manner. They played power politics. When Antony goes to Rome, he
sends Alexas with a pearl and a message for Cleopatra. The stakes
were high and it was survival of the fittest.
Caesar wins the political power game because where Antony is fun
loving, Caesar is sober, calculating and restrained. Antony makes
the blunders and ultimately loses the game. Caesars losing the plot
to get Antony and Cleopatra to Rome to aggrandize his triumph is
the only political point he fails to take.
MILITARY POWER
Can be thought of as the physical application of political power. War
has entered a new dimension in our age.
As in the political field, Caesar wins the military. Caesar times his
campaigns. He wont fight Pompey until he has patched up his
differences with Antony. His final move against Antony is made after
observing Antonys decline in Egypt as a warrior. His use of
psychology is ruthless and effective. He doesnt allow sentiment or
affection to enter military affairs. Caesar allows his sister to be used
while Antony provokes the comment we are womens men after his
loss. We watch Antony drowning consideration as a way to
camaraderie before battle.
To Caesar a string of defections to him shows confidence and victory
need no such morale injections.
Antony pursued love and pleasure.

In the cutthroat world of human affairs, power goes to the focused

and the determined. There is no room for sentiment or hedonistic
distractions.
LOVE: THE POWER OF SEX
Critics claim Antony, the hero in the forum after Julius Caesars
death, the victor over the assassins at Philippi, the great General
many speak so well of in the play, could not just fade away to defeat
and death. In fact, they contend, he moves from his great eats of
soldiership and daring to a passionate, battle of wills with Cleopatra.
Antony clearly worships Cleopatra. Affairs of state are set aside after
he marries Octavia. He has no interest in waiting to give some
credence to the political marriage of convenience. Cleopatra is
aware of the sexual power she has over him, and demonstrates
immense energy and ingenuity in exploiting it every time we see
them together.
She is sad if he is happy, or happy if he is sad
Antonys followers blame Cleopatra for her disastrous influence on
him.
There is much powerplay in Antony and Cleopatras relationship.
She largely calls the tune with Antony occasionally asserting his will.
His response is largely a submissive one to his love and pleasure.
His willing involvement in this battle with Cleopatra sees a
weakening of his resolve in the theatres of war and politics.
POWER THROUGH PRETENCE: APPEARANCE AND REALITY
The ability to deceive is a potent weapon in the text. To maintain a
faade until it becomes convenient to show your real intentions and
motives is an effective tactic in overcoming your opponent.
Many important moves in the play involve deception. The dichotomy
between appearance and reality is prominent in Caesars methods
of winning power. Caesar agrees to Agrippas suggestion that
Antony marry his sister, Octavia. Deceiving his sister does not
trouble him. Antony joins the political marriage, making its falsity
clear by determining to return to his Eastern pleasure immediately
after his first meeting with Octavia.
Both Caesar and Cleopatra present false faces after Actium and
Antonys death. Caesar wants to display Cleopatra in Rome,
especially after Antony, his prime prisoner, has escaped through
death. Cleopatra is offered gentle terms. Her suicide thwarts him.

Thus defeated, he maintains the faade of a gracious victor. His

magnanimous words over the lovers bodies are a show.
Much powerplay is fought out on the battlefield. But crucial tactics
are often hatched behind the veneer of friendship.

PERSONAL POWER: SUICIDE

A feature of the latter part of the play. The vanquished commit
suicide. Suicide in the play is a display of personal power, the last
card in the powerplay game. To the Roman general, it was the
ultimate way of maintain honor. It was the way to avoid submission
to an opponent, to the humiliation of public display and ridicule. It
was the duty of a Roman follower to hold his masters sword in the
suicide decision.
Caesar knows the tradition of suicide among the vanquished. He
tries desperately to prevent this, first in Antony, then Cleopatra.
Antony expresses his confidence that suicide is his duty, and a way
of tarnishing Caesars victory. Cleopatra kills herself to join Antony.
But thwarting Caesars desire to highlight their power by placing his
conquests on display in Rome is a strong motivation in her too. The
followers Eros and Enobarbus also see honour in taking their lives.
Eros escapes the pain of killing his master. Enobarbus dies in
despair and guilt over his dense of dishonorably deserting Antony.
With Caesar, the audience sees the self-imposed deaths of Antony
and Cleopatra as a final assertion of personal power.
POWER AMONG THE FOLLOWERS
The followers of Antony, Caesar, Pompey and Cleopatra, are
subordinates in the big powerplay picture. They lived in the age
when power largely came to you through birth and blood. Some
were born to rule, others to follow.
The later medieval period saw the development of the feudal
system, with the pyramidal relationship between master and vassal.
The burden of loyalty and obedience to your betters is hard for us to
conceive in our democratic institutions, elections, trade unions and
protests.
The followers did have some, if limited, power. Leaders relied on
them for advice. The most powerful weapon a follower had was his
right to withdraw his loyalty, to defect to another leader.

The followers participation in the powerplay of the age was limited.

In the main, they lived their lives as pawns in the hands of the great
wielders of power.