Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Antony and Cleopatra, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Love, Pleasure, and Decadence
Honor, Loyalty, and Betrayal
Strategy, Manipulation, and Power
Messages, Warnings, and Omens
Gender Roles
Summary
Analysis
Back in Alexandria, Antony thanks his soldiers and says that tomorrow they will “spill the blood / That has to-day escaped.” Cleopatra enters, and Antony tells her he has been victorious. He tells her of Scarus’ honorable behavior and then she says she will give him a golden set of armor. Antony tells her that they will “through Alexandria make a jolly march . . . And drink carouses to the next day’s fate.” They leave to celebrate.
Antony thanks his loyal soldiers. Instead of focusing on or planning for the next battle with Octavius, though, he plans to celebrate decadently in the streets of Alexandria. Antony’s obsession with such decadence and luxury seems to be one of the causes of his military and political defeat.
Themes
