Antony and Cleopatra Notes >>

It is not because Caesar and Rome are morally superior to Cleopatra and Egypt that Shakespeare favors the former over the latter. The structure of the play is meant to present an appearance of incertitude as to which side will ultimately triumph. The play follows rapidly shifting political alliances and a whirl of battles. Before Act I is concluded, Caesar puts down one rebellion---that of Antony's wife Fulvia and his brother---and confront another, that of Pompey with league with the pirates Menas and Menecrates. This second rebellion does not come to a head, for in Act II, scene vi. Pompey and the other rebel leaders meet with Caesar, Antony, and Lepidus and agree not to fight. If war is uncertain, so is peace. Although Pompey admirably resists the suggestion of his pirate allies to dispatch with his rivals through a double-dealing act of subterfuge, in Act III, scene v we learn from, that Caesar and Lepidus have made war on Pompey and beaten him. From here we move to the conflict between Caesar, on the one hand, and Antony and Cleopatra on the other. The tides of battle shift back and forth: indeed, as late as Act IV, scene viii, the outcome of the conflict appears to lie in the balance, as Antony and his Roman followers and Egyptian allies beat Caesar's Roman force back to their camp.