The Way in Which the Character of Antony is Portrayed in Sha

The Scene ends with the Roman view once again rigid, the same as the begging and very different to what seems to be Antony's attitude. In this scene Shakespeare is showing us the many different personalities of Antony. He shows us with the Roman viewpoint how Antony should be but we see Antony putting Cleopatra higher then him, on a pedestal when they are together and then with the messenger his is short fused, angry and annoyed. The audience is now confused about which side of Antony is his true form and they are unsure of his personality. Shakespeare's writing is very clever here and it is a very powerful way in which to introduce Antony as Shakespeare is giving the audience clues to the type of person Antony is but will unravel how the clues piece together later on in the play. Cleopatra seems to give Antony the opportunity to let himself become changed as you can tell by the quick change in personalities. Though Antony is in Egypt with Cleopatra, the world of Rome persistently intrudes. Shakespeare has revealed a lot to his audience about Antony and how he is set in the middle between the two opposing forces of Rome and duty on one hand, Egypt and pleasure on the other.
             In Act 1, Scene 2 although Antony is in Cleopatra's palace it is the first time we have seen him away from Cleopatra and already he has turned towards his Roman values as he has a political talk with his messenger "times state", "better issue in the war". Antony also seems prepared to listen to the messenger as he talks about Rome "Well, what worst?" Now that Antony is still in Egypt but discussing Roman issues the two worlds begin to mix as he asks "Name Cleopatra as she is called in Rome" we see him here both having doubts about Cleopatra and caring what others, especially his country thinks of her. Shakespeare gives us a small insight into the mind of Antony during this scene where we can see that when he is talking to his messenger it is mainly about political duty's "Sicyon, ho, the news!" but when his thoughts are directed to Cleopatra then he talks about "dotage" and freedom.