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Antony and Cleopatra Study Guide Act 1

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Antony and Cleopatra Study Guide Act 1 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA STUDY GUIDE ACT 1 NAME: PERIOD: LEVEL ONE (KNOWLEDGE) QUESTIONS Provide a brief answer to each of these questions. 1. What do Antony’s men fear he has become at the beginning of the play? 2. At the beginning of the act, how does Antony feel about Rome? 3. What does a soothsayer do? What ominous advice does the soothsayer give Charmian? 4. Enobarbus mocks Cleopatra, saying that she is always threatening to do what? 5. What has made Pompey go to war? 6. Why does Cleopatra criticize Antony when he doesn’t show emotion after Fulvia’s death? 7. What makes Caesar say that Antony is not manly? 8. Who are Menecrates and Menas? 9. There are two Caesars referenced in the act. Who are they? English II Mr. Pogreba LEVEL TWO (COMPREHENSION) QUESTIONS Write at least one complete sentence to answer each of these questions, using evidence from the play when you can. 1. Why is Antony referred to as one of the “triple pillars of the world”? 2. What are the “Egyptian fetters” Antony must break? 3. Why does Enobarbus say that Antony should not weep at the news of Fulvia’s death? 4. What does Antony mean when he says that Romans never link their love to the deserver? 5. Explain Cleopatra’s line (Act 1, Sc. 3) when she says, “if you find him sad…” 6. Why are Antony and Cleopatra attracted to each other? What qualities in Cleopatra influence Antony’s consistent forgiveness of her suspicious actions? 7. Many of Antony’s followers express their opinions of Antony’s actions and of Cleopatra’s power over him. What are the perspectives of Antony’s followers and how do they change as the play progresses? 8. Cleopatra and Charmian compare methods of keeping a man. What manipulative strategies are evident in Cleopatra’s methods? 9. Cleopatra is a woman of many tactics. What tactics does she use to get what she wants from Antony, her servants, and later from Caesar? Are her dramatic mood swings emotional outbursts? Or are they manipulative strategies as well? 10. How are messengers and followers treated differently by Caesar, Antony, and Cleopatra? Who seems to be the most benevolent, hostile, or respectful in such relationships? What does this say about each character? 2 LEVEL THREE (CRITICAL THINKING) QUESTIONS Answer each of these questions with at least 4 sentences. Use evidence from the play. 1. Antony and Cleopatra are two of the best-known lovers in history? Using at least three lines from the text, how would you describe their relationship in Act 1? 2. Advisers to Antony and Cleopatra both speak of the link between love and fear. How are they linked in the play? Whay would the two be linked? QUOTATION ANALYSIS Answer each of these questions with at least four sentences. Explain what the quotation means and how it expresses a major idea of the play. (ACT 1, Scene 1, lines 1-17) PHILO Nay, but this dotage of our general’s O’erflows the measure. Those his goodly eyes That o’er the files and musters of the war Have glowed like plated Mars, now bend, now turn The office and devotion of their view Upon a tawny front. His captain’s heart, Which in the scuffles of great fights hath burst The buckles on his breast, reneges all temper And is become the bellows and the fan To cool a gipsy’s lust. 3 (ACT 1, Scene 3, lines 20-23) CLEOPATRA What, says the married woman you may go? Would she had never given you leave to come! Let her not say ‘tis I that keep you here. I have no power upon you; hers you are. 4 .
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