Vestnik Pravoslavnogo Svâto-Tihonovskogo Gumanitarnogo Universiteta: Seriâ III. Filologiâ (Dec 2020)
Life as a play: the principle of the “theatre within the theatre” in Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra
Abstract
This article deals with theatricality as a characteristic feature of Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra. It studies methods and techniques in creating the theatrical, fictional, illusory element as well as its correlation with the element of real events and circumstances. The theatricality here becomes a property of the life which the characters live because they live as they play. Besides, they make their own reality over the one given to them and see the world in the way they would like to see it. The play can be read as a gradual discovery of the theatrical, artifi cial nature of those pictures of the world which in the beginning is proclaimed by the characters to be an existing reality. Theatricality as a principle of life of the acting characters of the play opens in the verbal intention, imagery and range of metaphors, in acts and in the confi guration of the characters, which comes to be a subject of analysis in this article. For instance, theatricality is created by declamatory fl amboyance of speeches, by pretence, deception, jokes and manipulations that are inherent in the characters’ behaviour. Theatricality manifests itself in their desire to appear and care about their own image, in the presence in each scene of its own “actors” and “spectators”. The theatrical impetus, as a property of characters is most strongly expressed in Cleopatra and Antony. They make an image of their world of unprecedented love and live in it performing the roles they have assumed. The article argues that relationships between the reality and fantasy, the life and performance in the play are ambivalent, and are treated as fundamentally non-differentiated and continuously fl owing into each other. The border between them is finally erased by the death of the hero and heroine. In terms of art and in terms of theater they have won, in real life they die and lose. However, only the spectator knows about this reality. For the heroes, the reality, theater and triumph coincide. The theatre in this play by Shakespeare becomes an all-encompassing category.
Keywords
