Man's Earliest Form of Intoxication: Women

Man's Earliest Form of Intoxication: Women

Antony in Act 1 is in a spot where every guy has been, blinded by a foggy mixture of love and lust. Those on the outside looking in can see that Antony has started to lose his grip, his common sense, his identity even. He sees this early on in the play when he learns of the death of his wife Fulvia.

I must from this enchanting queen break off:

Ten thousand harms, more than the ills I know,

My idleness doth hatch (1.2.127-29)

The idea of a man losing a part of himself to a woman has been present in human culture for as far back as mythology can take us. In the epic of Gilgamesh for instance, one of the oldest surviving myths, Enkidu loses his wild, untamed nature after he makes love to the prostitute in the woods. After that he is no longer accepted by the creatures of the forest and must accompany the woman back to Babylon.

In Pop Culture today it is easiest to spot this concept in music, notably rap music. Due to technological ignorance, I've shared the song Got to Go by the artist Mac Dre in the following blog. In a snailshell, Mac Dre spits hot fire about the dangers of allowing women to cause men to "grow comfortable" in a sense. Please be aware, the song is crude, crass, and hardly academic. The specific lyrics I have in mind occur at 1 minute, 53 seconds through 2 minutes. If you decide to skip listening to this song the lyrics go like this:

Baby I got to go

Can't f*** (make love) no more

I gots to get my dough

Hella money in the streets and I want it.

Though the creative outlet is different, the concept that women somehow take something away from men is the same. There seems to be the conviction that a man cannot maintain his course of responsibility he gives into his carnal desires, thus neglecting his duties.

If using this concept as a lens through which to interpret the play, Antony and Cleopatra can be perceived as an eternal lesson to warn against what might happen to any man who chooses to follow a similar path. Marc Antony, who is one of the great heroes of Roman history, meets an end seemingly unworthy of his noble life. The pinnacle of Antony's effemination/loss of identity occurs in Act 3, where news of how he abandoned his troops in the midst of battle to chase after the fleeing Cleopatra reaches his captain Enobarbus.

She once being luffed,

the noble ruin of her magic, Antony,

Claps on his sea wing, and, like a doting mallard,

leaving the fight in height, flies after her.

I never saw an action of such shame;

Experience, manhood, honor, ne'er before

Did violate so itself. (3.10.19-24)

Ultimately, in the only way to conclude the story with any sort of Shakespearean balance, Antony kills himself, thereby retaining whatever honor he had left and freeing himself of the intoxicating Cleopatra. Ironically, Antony killed himself asa way to rejoin Cleopatra, but in so doing he unknowingly leaves her behind.

Within the play Cleopatra/Egypt represent Antony's addiction. There is no such thing as a man without faults, and this always seems most apparent among those who have accomplished great things. Antony's weakness for his plush life in Egypt and the seductive Cleopatra leads him to his demise, but the question of whether he did the right this is still unclear. Logical perception of the events tell us Antony clearly made a fatal mistake by allowing himself to become so captivated with Cleopatra, but Shakespeare leaves the audience with a sense of admiration from Antony's final minutes. His passion for that hing he loved most ultimately hilled him, but it seems Shakespeare poses the question, "Would death be such a high price to pay in exchange for a life with that thing one loves most, no matter that thing's nature?"