Antony and Cleopatra: Writer's Methods and Techniques (Cambridge (CIE) IGCSE English Literature): Revision Note

Shakespeare uses a wide range of dramatic and literary techniques to convey meaning and explore themes. In the exam, when you are asked to analyse a writer’s methods, you should focus on how Shakespeare’s choices of language, form and structure shape character, plot, and audience response.

The following guide contains sections on:

• Form

• Stagecraft

• Language 

• Imagery and symbolism

Form

Types of Shakespeare play

There are three types of Shakespeare play:

• Tragedy

• Comedy

• History

Each of these forms has specific structures and conventions. When you know these conventions, you can then use this knowledge to discuss when and how Shakespeare conforms to those conventions, or breaks from them. 

Tragedy

Although related to history, Antony and Cleopatra is classed as one of Shakespeare’s tragedies. It ends with the fall and death of the protagonists (opens in a new tab). 

With Shakespeare’s tragedies, you will usually find:

• A tragic hero: a flawed protagonist who is destined to die:

  • In Antony and Cleopatra, both the main characters fit this role, each brought down by personal weaknesses and the political forces surrounding them

  • This play therefore has a dual tragic focus; it does not cleanly prioritise one character over the other

• Hamartia (opens in a new tab): this is the fatal flaw or trait that will lead to the downfall of the tragic hero or heroes

  • In Antony and Cleopatra, we see Cleopatra’s fatal flaw as her emotional unpredictability and desire for attention, which drive her to impulsive actions that undermine both her and Antony

  • Antony’s fatal flaw is his divided identity, which sees him act indecisively, with overconfidence and an emotional dependence on Cleopatra that harms his Roman identity

• A foil: a character who provides a contrast with the tragic hero, often highlighting their flaws:

  • Octavius is the perfect foil to both Antony and Cleopatra

  • His cold authority, discipline, focus, and political ambition perfectly contrast with their impulsive behaviour and instability

• Catharsis (opens in a new tab): the audience experiences a release of emotion, whether that’s sympathy, sorrow, or admiration, when the tragic heroes fall:

  • The way both bravely face their fate at the end, and show their loyalty to each other, allows the audience to respect their final moments, creating a powerful emotional ending and reaction

• Fate: Shakespearean tragedy often feels fated because characters keep making the same flawed choices:

  • Antony and Cleopatra appear to move along a path that becomes increasingly unavoidable

  • The pair are also convinced that fate and omens run their lives

• Conflict: tragedies weave together both internal and external conflict

  • Antony wrestles with his internal conflict, flitting between soldier and lover, Roman and Egyptian

  • All the while, the external conflict of war with Pompey and then Caesar drive the story, and push the lead characters to their tragic fate

• Restoration of order:

  • After both Antony and Cleopatra die, Octavius organises burials and a joint funeral, before going back as the one ruler of Rome, restoring political order

Often, Shakespeare’s tragedies follow the same five-part structure. Antony and Cleopatra sticks to that:

1. Exposition (opens in a new tab): the opening introduces Antony’s divided life between Rome and Egypt and hints at the tension this split will cause

2. Rising action (opens in a new tab): Antony’s flaws, and how they cause tension with Rome, become more and more apparent, seen most in his quick return to Egypt, the breakdown of his alliance with Caesar, and then his management of conflict with lazy choices driven by passion, not strategy

3. Climax (opens in a new tab): Antony’s defeat at Actium marks the turning point: after abandoning the decisive sea battle to follow Cleopatra’s fleeing ship, he cannot return to the status he once held

4. Falling action (opens in a new tab): Antony realises he has lost his honour, his army, and the world he once commanded. Cleopatra, too, recognises that Caesar will never allow her to rule freely

5. Denouement (opens in a new tab): both lovers choose death on their own terms. Their suicides end the chaos, and Caesar assumes undisputed control, closing the tragedy with restored order

How Antony and Cleopatra deviates from the usual form of Shakespeare’s tragedies:

• Two tragic heroes instead of one:

  • Both Antony and Cleopatra undergo a tragic arc

  • This shifts the emotional focus and creates a more complex, intertwined tragedy

• Blurred genre: tragedy mixed with history and romance

• No single, decisive moment:

  • In Antony and Cleopatra, the reversal unfolds across several moments:

    • the decision to fight at sea

    • Cleopatra’s flight at Actium

    • Antony’s misjudgement in the second naval battle

    • his false belief that Cleopatra has betrayed him

• This makes the tragedy feel more episodic and less linear

• Rather than one moment of recognition, Antony and Cleopatra has two:

  • Antony realises he has lost his honour and misjudged Cleopatra

  • Cleopatra realises her identity will be destroyed if she submits to Caesar

• Emotionally ambiguous ending:

  • Whilst order is restored, the play finishes with an unusual tone for a tragedy

  • Caesar admires both, and has reverence for Cleopatra, and honours them by burying them together

  • Their deaths feel somewhat triumphant, which makes it feel less tragic

Stagecraft

• The structure of Antony and Cleopatra demonstrates Shakespeare’s skill in shaping a tragedy that moves across continents and cultures:

  • The play is a classic example of a Shakespearean tragedy, but it also deviates from the traditional model:

    • It does this through rapid scene changes, dual focus on two protagonists, and its blending of political and romantic narratives

• The play is built around two interconnected worlds:

  • The disciplined, strategic world of Rome

  • The sensuous, unpredictable realm of Egypt

• These contrasting settings provide the structural foundation of the drama:

  • The swift movement between them highlights the tension between public duty and private desire

  • By jumping between the two, the play also mirrors Antony’s inner conflict as he is pulled between two identities

• The play’s structure is almost episodic, containing many short scenes that create a sense of speed and instability:

  • These short scenes, going from story to story, emphasise the political volatility of the late Roman Republic

  • They also allow Shakespeare to explore a wide range of perspectives, from rulers and soldiers, to messengers and attendants

  • This approach gives the tragedy a broad quality, unlike the tighter structure of plays such as Othello or Macbeth

Language

• Shakespeare uses blank verse (opens in a new tab) for most high-status characters, including Antony, Cleopatra, and Caesar

  • Blank verse reinforces the dignity, authority, and emotional complexity of these figures

• He shifts into prose (opens in a new tab) for lower-status characters and for moments of informality or disorder, such as the drunken banquet on Pompey’s galley:

  • This contrast in speech form highlights differences in social rank, political power, and emotional control

Imagery and symbolism

• Clouds are used to symbolise the change in Antony:

  • He brings up clouds once defeated in battle by Octavius (Act Four, Scene 14)

  • It is not immediately obvious why he does so, but it becomes clear he is remarking on his own change:

    • “Here I am Antony, / Yet cannot hold this visible shape” shows that he feels like he has changed, and cannot stop that change

  • As clouds change, so to has he, from conqueror to victim

• Equally, Antony sees himself as a cloud because being changeable is something new to him:

  • He was the great general, a military power and strong leader, and assumed he would be so until his dying days

  • Now, he sees that he is like a cloud, changing shape, and this shocks him:

    • He was reassured by his firm stance and identity, and is shaken to lose that

• This can also symbolise his change on meeting Cleopatra

• Cleopatra’s gender and sexuality are also highlighted by strong imagery:

• She chooses to die by snakes concealed in a basket of figs:

  • Figs are a fruit that can symbolise female fertility

• In death, she uses asps to kill herself:

  • She lifts one to her breast, and she remarks “Dost thou not see my baby at my breast, / That sucks the nurse asleep?”

  • In this instance, she presents herself as a mother, a caregiver, and a symbol of femininity 

• The asp is also associated with the Nile, giving her a symbolic death:

  • She dies in a very Egyptian way, a last protest against the Roman death Octavius would have given her