tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901980733463068698.post5662713345933739543..comments2024-03-28T15:01:12.582+00:00Comments on The little white attic : Antony and CleopatraHai Di Nguyenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02230670162621139739noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901980733463068698.post-6425317337829387232021-09-17T21:38:28.479+01:002021-09-17T21:38:28.479+01:00I will have to get back to this.
I didn't unde...I will have to get back to this.<br />I didn't understand and feel this play as well as some others, so... Hai Di Nguyenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02230670162621139739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901980733463068698.post-59503773619176758162021-09-16T16:06:25.926+01:002021-09-16T16:06:25.926+01:00Oh and apologies, I was logged into my work accoun...Oh and apologies, I was logged into my work account when I posted originally, haha! Montezhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11099333058568185397noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901980733463068698.post-66800509104702374932021-09-16T16:04:59.239+01:002021-09-16T16:04:59.239+01:00Apologies, I may not have worded my point clearly ...Apologies, I may not have worded my point clearly as I'm not sure if you took my final sentence as a reflection on the play itself or as a reflection on Octavius, the character. It was meant to convey the latter. It was a tad hyperbolic but it's hard not to be about such a generally hyperbolic play. I largely in affinity with the post you linked. It edges toward what I mean by "common sense" and "wisdom" in describing how the two protagonists are portrayed. It's the reason virile and pragmatic men like Shaw come to this play and hate it. I don't really view either phrase as a positive when it comes to discussing this play and, in fact, I think those terms are kind of turned on their head here. In a general sense, it seems to me Shakespeare does the impossible through striving to show the power and wisdom of imagination or imaginative work—something that is often denigrated in favor of more "sensible" points of view, ways of living, even by readers of poetry. To be elusive, if you know anything about Keat's letters, the same conflicting issue arises there. Let me know if that makes anymore sense. I could discuss this play further but I wanted to first clarify what I was saying originally.Montezhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11099333058568185397noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901980733463068698.post-46308585651153115932021-09-15T21:07:01.405+01:002021-09-15T21:07:01.405+01:00I wouldn't go as far as calling him a plot dev...I wouldn't go as far as calling him a plot device, but (I think) I see what you mean.<br />It's fascinating how he's said to be, and in some way depicted to be, the statesman and leader that Antony and Cleopatra are not, but Antony and Cleopatra, flawed as they are, achieve a kind of dignity and divinity at the end that he doesn't have. I have no idea how Shakespeare does it. Hai Di Nguyenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02230670162621139739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901980733463068698.post-26106208201868056942021-09-15T17:47:17.164+01:002021-09-15T17:47:17.164+01:00Though Octavian, personification of the inexorable...Though Octavian, personification of the inexorable weight of history bearing down on Antony and Cleopatra, doesn't get as much attention as the famous couple. He is a sort of emotionless pressure that eventually flattens everything in his path, a walking and talking plot device, so well done that he's almost invisible.scott g.f.baileyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05726743149139510832noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901980733463068698.post-38045609404422811112021-09-14T11:10:44.146+01:002021-09-14T11:10:44.146+01:00That sounds a bit too bitter and negative, no? I d...That sounds a bit too bitter and negative, no? I don't really read the play that way.<br />Check out this blog post and see what you think:<br />https://argumentativeoldgit.wordpress.com/2016/05/02/shakespeare400-antony-and-cleopatra-revisited/ Hai Di Nguyenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02230670162621139739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901980733463068698.post-83533276625768888242021-09-13T16:31:01.067+01:002021-09-13T16:31:01.067+01:00My personal favorite play. I especially enjoy how ...My personal favorite play. I especially enjoy how Shakespeare gives it his best to make challenge “common sense,” that is, to put it plainly, wisdom versus sublime. Leaves one asking where life was truly found in this play when all that’s left in the world is cold Augustus.PoliticallyUncorrecthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02210528841772293185noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901980733463068698.post-24208066730300558392021-09-12T18:07:02.657+01:002021-09-12T18:07:02.657+01:00Yeah, I like that moment when Antony is shouting &...Yeah, I like that moment when Antony is shouting "I am Antony yet" at the messenger, and he's clearly not Antony then.<br />I don't love the play as much as some others, but perhaps it's because it's the first time. Later I may see things I missed this time. Hai Di Nguyenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02230670162621139739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901980733463068698.post-37946361566523873282021-09-12T17:55:46.570+01:002021-09-12T17:55:46.570+01:00It's so sad and beautiful: the world's mos...It's so sad and beautiful: the world's most famous and glamorous couple, aging into a pair of jaded old voluptuaries who live inside a bubble of nostalgia, increasingly disconnected from the world. In their imaginations, he is still <i>The</i> Antony, and she is <i>The</i> Cleopatra. The grandeur surrounding them is more nostalgia, on the part of the world which has not yet seen who Antony and Cleopatra have become. I love this play. It's like the biggest, most sweeping, most intimate domestic drama ever written.scott g.f.baileyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05726743149139510832noreply@blogger.com