An Apology for Antony: Morality and Pathos in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra
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An Apology for Antony : Morality and Pathos in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra. / Kluge, Sofie.
In: Orbis Litterarum, Vol. 63, No. 4, 2008, p. 304-334.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - An Apology for Antony
T2 - Morality and Pathos in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra
AU - Kluge, Sofie
N1 - Paper id:: 1600-0730
PY - 2008
Y1 - 2008
N2 - Taking off from a consideration of Antony and Cleopatra's intermingling of pathetic and moral tragedy, the analysis proposed in the present essay demonstrates how the play's peculiar combination of morality and pathos results in a dialectical critique of both concepts of the tragic. Shakespeare didn't write a straight-forward pathetic tragedy, in fact Antony and Cleopatra questions this very phenomenon from the perspective of the tragicomic Christian theatrum mundi. At the same time, however, the play inverts not only moral tragedy, but also the moral design - the ‘exemplary' story of the great Mark Antony's downfall through moral corruption - that Shakespeare inherited from Roman historiography through Plutarch's Life of Antony, Medieval historiography, and Renaissance emblematics.In contrast to the recent critical negligence of the moral aspect of the play, as well as the overemphasis on this aspect in the early criticism of the play, the analysis proposed emphazises the dialectic of moralism and pathos in Shakespeare's play. The fundamental ambiguity permeating Shakespeare's characterization of Antony as a tragic hero is not only seen to affect the understanding of this particular play, but also, by implication, to question the notion of Shakespeare as a modern dramatist and the view of Renaissance drama as an unequivocal break with the medieval dramatical heritage.
AB - Taking off from a consideration of Antony and Cleopatra's intermingling of pathetic and moral tragedy, the analysis proposed in the present essay demonstrates how the play's peculiar combination of morality and pathos results in a dialectical critique of both concepts of the tragic. Shakespeare didn't write a straight-forward pathetic tragedy, in fact Antony and Cleopatra questions this very phenomenon from the perspective of the tragicomic Christian theatrum mundi. At the same time, however, the play inverts not only moral tragedy, but also the moral design - the ‘exemplary' story of the great Mark Antony's downfall through moral corruption - that Shakespeare inherited from Roman historiography through Plutarch's Life of Antony, Medieval historiography, and Renaissance emblematics.In contrast to the recent critical negligence of the moral aspect of the play, as well as the overemphasis on this aspect in the early criticism of the play, the analysis proposed emphazises the dialectic of moralism and pathos in Shakespeare's play. The fundamental ambiguity permeating Shakespeare's characterization of Antony as a tragic hero is not only seen to affect the understanding of this particular play, but also, by implication, to question the notion of Shakespeare as a modern dramatist and the view of Renaissance drama as an unequivocal break with the medieval dramatical heritage.
KW - Faculty of Humanities
KW - Shakespeare (William)
KW - Morality
KW - Pathos
M3 - Journal article
VL - 63
SP - 304
EP - 334
JO - Orbis Litterarum
JF - Orbis Litterarum
SN - 0105-7510
IS - 4
ER -
ID: 10735812