*Antony and Cleopatra
Antony and Cleopatra -William Shakespeare
The seminal difference between Cleopatra and Lady Macbeth lies not in their action, nor in their intention, but in their conclusions. The last we see of Lady Macbeth is when she is frantically trying to rue away her bloodstained hands,“Out, damned spot,” she begs. But, she realizes, “What’s done cannot be undone.”
Whereas Cleopatra is left, indeed, with the ultimate cleansing, self-martyrdom. Having done no irreparable wrong, she kills herself to both avoid becking to Caesar and to join her deceased lover. Both Cleopatra and Lady Macbeth are, in terms, in the end, “unsexed.” Lady Macbeth bats away her sex so that she can find the fortitude to murder. Cleopatra, on the other hand, achieves the consummation of her sex through the love and anger shared between her and Antony. The diabolical difference between LadyBeth and Cleopatra, is that Cleopatra ends life unsexed and Lady Macbeth is, in the end, resexed. When Cleopatra dies, she uses as weapon an asp. Obviously symbolic of what it took women to become women, or to become at least ashamed of being so, instead of beggaring to the temptation of the snake, this time, she (woman/Cleopatra) delivers her own coup de (grace)innocence, and seals herself forever with the mark of conscience, the, in fact, ultimate mark of purpose, suicide.
“My resolution’s placed, and I have nothing
Of woman in me. Now from head to foot
I am marble-constant; now the fleeting moon
No planet is of mine.”
and,
“I am fire and air; my other elements
I give to baser life.”
She walks away from life Cained. She leaves tattooed by the beast (purpose/potential/possibility), but, she walks upright.
Lady Macbeth, however, attempting to trump her womanity, succumbs to the beast (p/p/p, or, conscience), and is left imprisoned. Both her man, and the man in her, fail her: Macbeth cowers to a ghost and is then killed by Macduff, while she herself concedes her masculinity to tears.
Two more from Antony and Cleopatra:
“There’s beggary in love that can be reckoned.”
“The breaking of so great a thing should make a greater crack.”
The seminal difference between Cleopatra and Lady Macbeth lies not in their action, nor in their intention, but in their conclusions. The last we see of Lady Macbeth is when she is frantically trying to rue away her bloodstained hands,“Out, damned spot,” she begs. But, she realizes, “What’s done cannot be undone.”
Whereas Cleopatra is left, indeed, with the ultimate cleansing, self-martyrdom. Having done no irreparable wrong, she kills herself to both avoid becking to Caesar and to join her deceased lover. Both Cleopatra and Lady Macbeth are, in terms, in the end, “unsexed.” Lady Macbeth bats away her sex so that she can find the fortitude to murder. Cleopatra, on the other hand, achieves the consummation of her sex through the love and anger shared between her and Antony. The diabolical difference between LadyBeth and Cleopatra, is that Cleopatra ends life unsexed and Lady Macbeth is, in the end, resexed. When Cleopatra dies, she uses as weapon an asp. Obviously symbolic of what it took women to become women, or to become at least ashamed of being so, instead of beggaring to the temptation of the snake, this time, she (woman/Cleopatra) delivers her own coup de (grace)innocence, and seals herself forever with the mark of conscience, the, in fact, ultimate mark of purpose, suicide.
“My resolution’s placed, and I have nothing
Of woman in me. Now from head to foot
I am marble-constant; now the fleeting moon
No planet is of mine.”
and,
“I am fire and air; my other elements
I give to baser life.”
She walks away from life Cained. She leaves tattooed by the beast (purpose/potential/possibility), but, she walks upright.
Lady Macbeth, however, attempting to trump her womanity, succumbs to the beast (p/p/p, or, conscience), and is left imprisoned. Both her man, and the man in her, fail her: Macbeth cowers to a ghost and is then killed by Macduff, while she herself concedes her masculinity to tears.
Two more from Antony and Cleopatra:
“There’s beggary in love that can be reckoned.”
“The breaking of so great a thing should make a greater crack.”
posted by JohnWashington at 2:31 PM
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