'And makes it indistinct / As water is in water': The melting away of the heroic subject in Antony and Cleopatra and All for Love. Issue 1 (November 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Velissariou, Aspasia
• Is Part Of: Cahiers élisabéthains. Volume 103:Issue 1(2020)
• Page Start: 39
• Page End: 56
• Publication Date: 2020-11
• Subjects: William Shakespeare -- Antony and Cleopatra -- Rome -- John Dryden -- All for Love -- interiority -- domestication; William Shakespeare -- Antoine et Cléopâtre -- Rome -- John Dryden -- All for Love -- intériorité -- vie familiale; English literature -- Early modern, 1500-1700 -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; English literature -- Early modern, 1500-1700 -- History and criticism -- Book reviews -- Periodicals; 820.9003
• DOI: 10.1177/0184767820935131
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0184-7678

Abstract

Premising the structural importance of water imagery in William Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, Antony's 'liquefaction' reflects the core of his interiority, which is identified with his love affair with Cleopatra. Their desire requires a third party, Rome, in relation to which a seemingly self-enclosing erotic universe is built, and against which Antony fights for ascendancy, as a ghostly heroic self. In John Dryden's All for Love, the historical flux vanishes, Antony's heroic past figures as a residue and history as an embarrassment to love. In contrast with Shakespeare's heroes, the lovers' domestication foregrounds the compatibility of love and eros within marriage.