Antony and Cleopatra and the dramaturgy of shame

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn William Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, Antony is conceived of as a character acting in the context of a large-scale exposure to shame and shaming: by his Roman compatriots, enemies and friends alike, by his own estimate of his life in Egypt, and in the eyes of the audience who witness his failure to live up to a Roman code of military honour. Using examples from the critical reception dedicated to the issue of shame in Antony and Cleopatra, this essay argues that the play’s dramaturgy of placing this character in the field of shame increases the probability of readers and audiences accepting also the contents for which Antony is being shamed, contents based on a misogynistic, racialised, and homophobic understanding of masculinity. The play itself, however, offers some relief from these constructions in a second strand pursuing a dramaturgy not of shame but of attachment which opens the door to readings resistant to the dramaturgy of shame.