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Antony and Cleopatra
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Symbols & Motifs
Divination
The motif of divination appears throughout Antony and Cleopatra, hinting that Antony is destined to be defeated by Caesar despite his superior skill in military command. Egyptian soothsayers appear in Cleopatra’s court and one accompanies Antony on his return to Rome, repeatedly predicting that Caesar is fated to have better luck. He warns, “If thou dost play with him at any game / Thou art sure to lose; and of that natural luck / He beats thee ’gainst the odds” (2.3.30-33). The soothsayer’s predictions reinforce what the audience would already be aware of in a historical play—that Caesar will become the first Emperor of Rome and defeat Caesar. Divination is therefore a way for William Shakespeare to increase the sense of dramatic irony.
Shakespeare plays with the question of whether divination is supernatural or a form of keen scientific observation. The Egyptian soothsayer describes his powers by claiming, “In nature’s infinite book of secrecy / A little I can read” (1.2.9-10). This affiliates divination with being able to “read” and properly interpret signs in the material world, rather than communication with a deity. Similarly, Roman divination, often called augury, used the movements of birds to predict future events. The Roman soldier Scarius seems to confirm the Egyptian soothsayer’s prediction that Antony will lose the war:
Swallows have built
In Cleopatra’s sails their nests. The augurs
Say they know not, they cannot tell, look grimly
And dare not speak their knowledge (4.11.4-7).
This description of the augurs predicting a loss and the birds nesting in the sails implies that divination might be a form of natural science rather than magic. The bird nests in the sails suggest that Cleopatra does not often use her navy and, therefore, her sailors are inexperienced compared to Caesar’s. The augurs’ fears might therefore be related to this observable sign in nature rather than some supernatural power.
Stars
Stars are a symbol of fate in Antony and Cleopatra, reflecting the Renaissance interest in astrology. In Shakespeare’s time, many people believed that astrological signs determined a person’s temperament and the ultimate course of their life. In the play, stars symbolically explain why conflict between Antony and Caesar is inevitable and unavoidable. Caesar laments when he hears that Antony has died, indicating his respect for Antony as a great leader. He suggests that their conflict was not personal, but rather because “our stars / Unreconcilable should divide / Our equalness to this” (5.1.55-57). While Shakespeare’s play casts some doubt upon this claim, also suggesting that Caesar resented Antony for mistreating his beloved sister Octavia, Caesar places the blame on the stars for instigating their division.
Antony also blames the stars for his military losses, suggesting that he was fated to fall from greatness. Since the stars determined both his character and his luck, he feels that his circumstances could not be changed or avoided. Even his own emotional responses are under the control of the stars, as when he claims the following:
He makes me angry,
And at this time most easy ’tis to do ’t,
When my good stars that were my former guides
Have empty left their orbs and shot their fires
Into th’ abysm of hell (3.13.177-81).
Antony’s imagery of stars falling from the sky into hell represents his own fall from the height of greatness into a lowlier position. While Antony is partially to blame for his own decline in status, having foolishly followed Cleopatra away from battle when he could have won a victory, his attribution of his fall to the stars calls into question how responsible a person is for their own destiny and how much temperament is determined by forces outside of a person’s control.
Snakes
Snakes symbolize the potential danger and treachery of women, particularly Cleopatra. Biblically, snakes are associated with female treachery through the story of Eve and the serpent. Similarly, Cleopatra recalls that Antony nicknamed her after a snake, imagining him thinking about her while he is away: “He’s speaking now / Or murmuring ‘Where’s my serpent of old Nile?’ / For so he calls me. Now I feed myself / With most delicious poison” (1.5.29-32). Snakes are connected to poison and also to Egypt, which was thought to have far more native poisonous snakes than western countries. By affiliating Cleopatra with a snake, Antony sees her and her home country as having hidden dangerous traits. Cleopatra refers to herself as consuming “delicious” poison, indicating that her tendency toward emotional manipulation and jealousy are as enticing as they are hazardous.
By the end of the play, however, the snake transforms into a symbol of Cleopatra’s danger to Caesar. Cleopatra dies by intentionally placing a poisonous asp to her breast, allowing it to bite her and kill her. She emphasizes how the bite is painless and “[a]s sweet as balm, as soft as air” (5.2.371). While the snake’s poison feels gentle to her, Cleopatra indicates that the snake would be more harmful to Caesar, saying, “O, couldst thou speak / That I might hear thee call great Caesar ass / Unpolicied!” (5.2.363-65). Through this scene, Shakespeare suggests that the poison of the snake is really Cleopatra’s own poison, intended to target Caesar. While Cleopatra dies because of the snake bite, she sees the snake as an extension of herself and her own wish to humiliate Caesar.
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By William Shakespeare
