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Antony’s Emasculating Error Shakespeare’s construction and complication of gender binaries is essential to the modern scholarly discussion of Antony and Cleopatra , largely due to the emergence of feminist criticism in the late twentieth century. In this recent wave of scholarship, there has been much debate about the status of Antony’s gender identity, and how his embodiment of Roman masculinity changes over the course of the play. Scholars have formulated a variety of systems through which to view the shifting gender dynamics in this play: Coppélia Kahn addresses the gender implications of emulous rivalry between Caesar and Antony;^1 Alan Sinfield implicates Antony’s heterosocial activity in his loss of manhood;^2 Janet Adelman reads the conflict of male scarcity and female bounty as represented by Cleopatra and Caesar, and identifies Caesar and Antony’s rivalry as an Oedipal dynamic.^3 All of these lenses include a form of competition as their central axiom, and necessarily declare the victory of one side or another. Various attempts have been made to locate a specific moment when Antony loses his manhood, and when he potentially reclaims it. Scholars tend to disagree on these specifics: In Alan Sinfield’s view, for example, Antony can cross-dress with Cleopatra and find no threat to his masculinity, yet is feminized when he allows Cleopatra to make decisions in war.^4 Coppélia Kahn contests this notion, and locates Antony’s loss of manhood in the moment when he believes Cleopatra has betrayed him. She also asserts that Antony, by Roman and early modern standards, reinstates his virtuous masculinity in the act of suicide, despite the sloppiness of his
(^12) Roman Shakespeare: Warriors, wounds and women (London: Routledge, 1997), 15. 3 Shakespeare, Authority, SexualitySuffocating Mothers: Fantasies of Maternal Origin in Shakespeare’s Plays,^ (Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2006), 88. Hamlet to The Tempest (New York: Routledge, 1992), 176, 179. 4 Sinfield, 104.
attempt.^5 Adelman and Neely, however, view Cleopatra’s dream of Antony in the end to construct a new sense of masculinity that embraces the contractions and paradoxes of his life while maintaining heroic valor. Antony’s total loss of manhood occurs in his defeat to Caesar and Cleopatra’s abandonment—he ironically cements his emasculation through his attempt to regain virtue in suicide, by seeking after the competition he was warned to avoid and depending on others for an act that should be testament to individual will.
I
In order to analyze Antony’s masculinity in Shakespeare’s play, the connection between Roman and early-modern ideals of gender must be examined. In her book Sexuality in Greek and Roman Culture , Marilyn Skinner identifies the Roman sense of masculinity in the word “ vir .” To be “ vir ,” a “real man,” the Roman had to be emotionally and physically hard, and always take the “insertive” role position during sex. Skinner writes, “The Roman vir is always poised on a slippery slope leading to loss of manhood.” This “loss of manhood” would come by showing passivity and “ mollita ,” which means “softness.” To the Romans, any “womanish” display by a man would “imply willing assumption of the passive or receptive role, a breach of the protocol of Roman manhood,” which valued the “inviolable” male body. Therefore, “the broader meanings of mollita , then, encompass a breakdown of self-discipline that annihilates social, not just sexual, manhood.” A new category was created to describe effeminate males by borrowing the Greek word “kinaidos,” which denoted a man who “allowed himself to penetrated anally.” The meaning extended to signify “an inability to curb appetite with reason.” Skinner writes,
(^5) Kahn, 117-18 and 127-30.
71).^9 Similarly, Philo in his opening speech says that Antony is “The triple pillar of the world / transformed into a strumpet’s fool” (1.1.12-13). Both of these statements locate Antony’s offense in his supposed relinquishing of ownership. Power is conferred to Cleopatra through each man’s use of the possessive: “strumpet’s fool” and “women’s men” create the image of Cleopatra possessing and using Antony, simultaneously diminishing the phallic “pillar” that he functions as in Roman political spheres. Alan Sinfield views Cleopatra’s effect on Antony’s masculinity as simply determined by the state of Antony’s political power. When Antony is “dominating an empire” he can switch clothes with Cleopatra with “no threat to his masculinity”; however, when he “allows Cleopatra to determine the conduct of the war” and then starts losing, it is an effeminizing experience.^10 This principle is illustrated by Antony’s interaction with her and Scarus after his victory by land. He says, “Behold this man. / Commend unto his lips thy favoring hand. / [ She offers SCARUS her hand ] —Kiss it, my warrior.” (4.9.22-4). In victory, Antony uses the power of Cleopatra’s sexuality, her “favoring hand,” to increase his sense of power in homosocial bonds. Most of these statements are commands: “Behold” and “Commend” are directed towards Cleopatra, while “Kiss” is to Scarus. Through winning and embodying the Roman “virtus,” Antony asserts his role as “vir” and demands control over Cleopatra’s sexuality, which she silently submits to him. This scene, with the kissing of Cleopatra’s hand, produces a reverse mirror image of Antony’s encounter with Thidias, in which his state of defeat results in enragement at the threatening potential of her sexuality, also symbolized through another man’s kissing of her hand.
(^9) All quotations of Antony and Cleopatra are from The Norton Shakespeare , ed. by Stephen Greenblatt. (New York City: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2016). 10 Sinfield, 104, references (2.5.22-3).
While I agree with Sinfield’s assertion of a correlation between Antony’s political status and Cleopatra’s effect on his masculinity, Coppélia Kahn illustrates that Cleopatra never did “determine the conduct of the war” through her reading of this interaction: ANTONY: … Canidius, we Will fight with [Caesar] by sea. CLEOPATRA: By sea! what else? CANIDIUS: Why will my lord do so? ANTONY: For that he dares us to't. (3.7.23-30) Rather than being persuaded by Cleopatra, Antony is misled by his desire to meet the “dares” of Caesar and prove himself as a viable male competitor. Cleopatra comments afterwards, in an exclamation and question that carry sarcastic, rather than demanding, tones. Kahn explains that in Plutarch’s Lives , Antony is written as misguided by the persuasion of Cleopatra; Shakespeare’s reversal in this crucial moment creates a critique of the Roman culture that is quick to divert blame onto a woman, even if Antony clearly made his own decision.^11 Thus, Sinfield falls into the same trap of misapprehension that Candius falls into, in believing that Antony’s armies are “women’s men.” In Carol Thomas Neely’s Broken Nuptials in Shakespeare’s Plays , she reads Antony as developing a “deepening dependence” on Cleopatra after the midpoint of the play, which “makes him fearful of his powerlessness and of her infidelity.”^12 Neely illustrates that right after Antony makes his infamous retreat, he takes responsibility: “I have fled myself” (3.11.7), yet he shifts the blame to Cleopatra when she enters the room. Her “request for pardon, and the tears that confirm her fault are necessary to erase Antony’s loss and shame.” This creates a “pattern of male attack and female submission” that happens twice more, and leads to Cleopatra’s death.
(^11) Kahn, 117-18. (^12) Broken Nuptials in Shakespeare’s Plays (Michigan: Yale University, 1985), 147-49.
Though daintily brought up, with patience more Than savages could suffer: thou didst drink The stale of horses, and the gilded puddle Which beasts would cough at: thy palate then did deign The roughest berry on the rudest hedge; Yea, like the stag, when snow the pasture sheets, The barks of trees thou browsed'st; on the Alps It is reported thou didst eat strange flesh, Which some did die to look on: and all this— It wounds thine honour that I speak it now— Was borne so like a soldier, that thy cheek So much as lank'd not. (1.4.55-71)
Antony’s slaying of the “consuls” demonstrates his ability to compete with and dominate other powerful men. Caesar’s description of the “famine” that Antony “fought’st against” serves to illustrate that the Roman civilization in which Antony was “daintily brought up” does not diminish his resilience and ability to physically compete with “savages” in the game of survival. He creates an image of Roman discipline by picturing Antony as willing to “drink / The stale of horses” that “beasts would cough at,” as well as eat “rough berries” and “bark.” The pairing of the measure and “patience” of Roman culture with the barbaric consumption of “strange flesh” for survival illustrates the paradoxical, unstable nature of the idealized Roman “virtus.” When framed by Caesar’s longing for the presence of Antony’s legendary masculinity, the competition between the two men (and Caesar’s eventual triumph) exemplifies the process of emulation. Caesar’s monologue also draws upon polarized binaries that relate to the construction of gender in the play. Caesar’s fascination with Antony’s mythical ability to deny his instincts and simultaneously maintain his body is read by Janet Adelman to demonstrate the ideology of “scarcity” on which Roman masculinity is based, and opposed by the concept of female “bounty.” Scarcity, the lack of resources, creates an environment that justifies competition—
which is Caesar’s response to this dwindling icon of Roman “virtus.”^15 However, Adelman fails to see the portrayal of regenerative strength, or inner “bounty,” in Caesar’s description of Antony’s trials: “borne so like a soldier, that thy cheek / So much as lank'd not.” This is a picture of the same internal “bounty” that Adelman identifies as feminine, yet it appears in a fantasization of masculine ideals. This confusion is rectified by Michael Payne’s understanding of polarity in the play: “Shakespeare develops a series of inter-related polarities-Rome-Egypt, masculinity-femininity … which at first appear to be mutually exclusive or dualistic concepts but which are finally shown to be polar concepts instead.” To be polar, two things must be opposite yet inextricably connected as part of the same substance, like the poles of the Earth. 16 As such, the perceived binaries of “scarcity” and “bounty,” can be seen to coexist in Caesar’s fantasy without creating a paradox, through the concept of polarity. Shakespeare’s simultaneous construction and sabotage of mutually exclusive binaries is a thematic concern of Antony and Cleopatra that bolsters the erosion of Antony’s masculine identity over the course of the play. Caesar continues his process of emulation by eliminating Lepidus from the triumvirate, thereby creating the duo of Caesar and Antony that inevitably leads to rivalry and conflict. Eros says, “Caesar, having made use of [Lepidus] in the wars ‘gainst Pompey / presently denied him rivality, and would not let him partake / in the glory of the action” (3.5.6-8). Caesar’s “having made use” of Lepidus creates a sexual image similar to that of a man with a prostitute. The extent to which the system of emulous rivalry permeates Shakespeare’s play is displayed by the use of the word “rivality” to mean one’s share in a possession: equality, and one’s status as “vir,” were determined by a man’s potential to be a rival. Thus, Caesar also bars Lepidus from “the
(^15) Adelman, 177-8. (^16) Michael Payne, “Erotic Irony and Polarity in Antony and Cleopatra.” Shakespeare Quarterly , Vol. 24, No. 3, 1973, pp. 265-66.
erotic: he says, “It would much please [Caesar], / That of his fortunes you should make a staff / To lean upon” (3.13.67-9). The transformation of wealth and riches into a “staff,” a phallic shape that Cleopatra could “lean upon” for support, is meant to entice Cleopatra both with ideas of lust and of great political, economic and social power. Antony’s response is cruel and fitting to the rivalry: he orders Thidias to be whipped, “Till like a boy you see him cringe his face” (3.13.101). Prevented from defeating Caesar in single combat, Antony displaces his rage at his “half- blasted,” legendarily promiscuous wife onto Thidias by reducing him from a man to a boy. In the Roman view of gender, a young boy had the potential be a sexual object through a boy’s similarity to their conception of women as weak, passive, and dependent. 17 The implications of domination and emasculation in Antony and Cleopatra’s imaginings of Caesar as youthful, “scarce-bearded” (1.1.23), are brought to life through the whipping of Thidias: Antony “virtually emasculates another man,” in order to protect his “claim” over Cleopatra.^18 With the Thidias scene Shakespeare displays that, in Roman culture, the public perception of one’s masculinity can be put at risk through the experience of defeat and humiliation; this scene and its social implications resonates with Antony’s struggle to affirm his masculinity in defeat at the end of the play. Antony and Caesar’s rivalry forms an “Oedipal dynamic”: Caesar desires to overtake a person whom he had previously heralded as the standard of masculinity, like any child’s father is to them. The Oedipal rivalry is heightened through Shakespeare’s focus on their age difference. Caesar is described as “scarce-bearded” while Antony claims that he reaps the benefits of both aged wisdom and youthful vigor: “though gray / do something mix with our younger brown, yet ha’ we / A brain that nourishes our nerves and can / get goal for goal with youth” (4.8.19-22).
(^17) Skinner, 181. (^18) Kahn, 120.
The establishment of an Oedipus complex becomes even more concrete when considering the words of the Eqyptian soothsayer. When Antony asks, “Whose fortunes shall rise higher, Caesar's or mine?” the soothsayer replies: “Caesar’s” (2.3.21-22). This is similar to how, in the Oedipus myth, Oedipus’s father heard the prophesy that his son would murder him and marry his wife, yet he still tries in vain to avoid this fate. The soothsayer’s prophesy creates a problem for Antony’s masculinity throughout the play: he must compete in order to establish and protect his Roman “vir,” yet he is destined to lose in any competition with his rival. And, as established with the whipping of Thidias, humiliation and defeat are considered markers for the loss of manhood. Given these axioms, Antony’s loss of masculinity is virtually inescapable.
IV
In light of the paradox of the soothsayer, Antony’s loss of masculinity is not a question of “if,” but of “when?” Kahn and Neely both identify Antony’s final defeat to Caesar in (4.12) and (4.14) as the moment of his loss of manhood. Kahn writes, “Antony feels emasculated in a sense that is as much political as sexual”; she identifies the pairing of Antony’s words, “She has robbed me of my sword” with the appearance of the eunuch Mardian to signify Antony’s loss of potency in military and sexual realms^19. Neely similarly states: “His double defeat is experienced as a loss of authority, honor, and manhood, and as a loss of followers who guarantee these attributes but whose defection castrates Antony to enlarge Caesar.”^20 Yet it is not just this defeat in battle that causes Antony to feel emasculated: it is also the consequences of his potential capture. He says to Eros: Eros, (^19) Kahn, 130. (^20) Neely, 149.
similar to Isis and Osiris, the Egyptian myth of a wife, Iris, reconstructing her husband Osiris despite numerous attempts by a rival to destroy him.^22 This is a flawed argument because, as shown earlier, Caesar creates a similar vision of Antony’s masculinity early in the play: according to Caesar, through rugged heroism combined with a magical inner bounty, Antony’s cheeks “So much as lank’d not” (1.4.71) during his time of extreme scarcity and survival. Therefore, Cleopatra’s dream does not invent a new masculinity, as Caesar has already created a similar ideal. Rather, Cleopatra’s dream is part of the sequence of stories that mythologize Antony—or rather, the ideal of Antony, who Adelman identifies as the absent object of desire in the play.^23 Although Adelman’s lens of the Isis and Osiris myth provides a model for mythical reconstitution, it does nothing to demonstrate that either a new version of masculinity or an affirmation of Antony’s manhood is produced through Cleopatra’s vision. Kahn, however, argues that Antony reasserts his masculine identity through the act of suicide. She says, “suicide is the ultimate expression of homosocial rivalry. Through suicide, Antony will regain his sword.”^24 In one sense, Kahn is correct: suicide can be a great act of rivalry, as it prevents one’s rival from striking the deathblow. However, Kahn undervalues the influence of the soothsayer, whose prophecy predicts that Antony will win no games against Caesar. Thus, Antony is either delusional or forgetful when he says to Eros: Thou strik’st not me—‘tis Caesar though defeat’st” (4.14.68). Antony’s motives for death are more motivated by competition than love, both with Caesar and Cleopatra. This ensures his defeat. He says, “I will o’ertake thee, Cleopatra” and “[I] condemn myself to lack the courage of a woman—less noble
(^22) Neely, 159-60. Adelman, 183-84. (^23) Adelman, 176. (^24) Kahn, 130.
mind.” He imagines himself and Cleopatra in death: “Dido and her Aeneas shall want our troops, / And all the haunt be ours” (4.14.44-60). This language is centered on the acquisition of status; the means for which Antony imagines will come through his competitive act of suicide. Kahn’s strongest defense of the nobility of Antony’s suicide is that the Romans and early-modern people would not have cared if Antony botched the suicide. This is based on the precedent of Cato’s suicide, for which he fell on his sword and miscalculated the damage, forcing him to disembowel himself in order to complete the act. Kahn claims that even this messy act was “hailed by the Romans as the act of ‘a free man [with] an invincible spirit.’”^25 However, this argument fails to acknowledge the significant difference between these two suicides of Cato and Antony. Cato, realizing that didn’t complete the act, strove to finish it despite the horrific suffering that attempting to disembowel oneself would cause. Antony, on the other hand, relies on everyone but himself to both commit the initial stroke and finish the job. First he coerces Eros into killing him; this fails when Eros, impossibly conflicted by his master’s wish, kills himself instead of Antony (4.14.94-95). As a result, Antony becomes a “scholar” of Eros by falling on his sword (4.14.102). When Antony realizes he isn’t dead, he takes the exact opposite actions from Cato: instead of completing his act with self-inflicted brutality, he cries everywhere for help multiple times. First: “Oh, dispatch me!” Then: “Oh, make an end to what I have begun.” Next he says: “Let him that loves me, strike me dead,” and three guards each refuse. His final plea: “Draw thy sword and give me / sufficing strokes for death” (4.14.104-20), does not reach anyone. The total dependence found in Antony’s pleas for death are a complete reversal from Kahn’s account of Cato’s gory suicide: a self-directed act that led to his affirmation as not just a man, but a “free man.” This leads me to the conclusion that it is
(^25) Kahn, 124.
Adelman, Janet. Suffocating Mothers: Fantasies of Maternal Origin in Shakespeare’s Plays, Hamlet to The Tempest. Routledge, 1992 Kahn, Coppélia. Roman Shakespeare: Warriors, wounds and women. Routledge, 1997. Neely, Carol Thomas. Broken Nuptials in Shakespeare’s Plays. Yale University, 1985. Payne, Michael. “Erotic Irony and Polarity in Antony and Cleopatra.” Shakespeare Quarterly , Vol. 24, No. 3, 1973, pp. 265-279. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2868352. Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra. The Norton Shakespeare. edited by Stephen Greenblatt. New York City: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2016. Sinfield, Alan. Shakespeare, Authority, Sexuality. Routledge, 2006. Skinner, Marilyn B. Sexuality in Greek and Roman Culture. Wiley-Blackwell, 2014.
Works Consulted
Anderson, Judith H. “Beyond Binarism: Eros/Death and Venus/Mars in Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra and Spenser’s Faerie Queene.” Shakespeare and Spenser: Attractive Opposites, Edited by J. B. LETHBRIDGE, Manchester University Press, 2008, pp. 54–
- www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt155jd1q.6. Charney, Maurice. “Shakespeare's Antony: A Study of Image Themes.”vol. 54, no. 2, 1957, pp. 149–161. www.jstor.org/stable/4173199. Studies in Philology ,
Harris, Jonathan Gil. “"Narcissus in thy Face": Roman Desire and the Difference it Fakes in Antony and Cleopatra .” Shakespeare Quarterly , Vol. 45, No. 4, 1994, pp. 408- 425.http://www.jstor.org/stable/2870964. Smith, Bruce R. Shakespeare and Masculinity. Oxford University Press, 2000.
