Antony and Cleopatra and Romeo and Juliet

As I was finishing up my individually assigned play Tuesday night, I couldn't help but see some similarities between the final scenes of the plays Antony and Cleopatra and Romeo and Juliet.

First off, they're both tragedies, centered about two people who should not be together, but find a way against all odds. 

*Antony is one of the triumvirs of the Roman Empire and Cleopatra is Queen of Egypt. Both have their own responsibilities as rulers, and are expected to handle things. Antony is also married to someone else. 

*Romeo and Juliet are from two different families with bad blood between the two of them. Both are not supposed to have anything to do with the other.

Secondly, both couples go through roughly the same final predicaments:

The male figure has an intense event that causes the couples to reevaluate their love for one another.

            *Antony battles against Caesar, knowing the outcome likely will be death. (IV.ii.)

                        “thou art/ The armourer of my heart:”

            *Romeo fights Tybalt and kills him, causing Romeo to be exiled. (III.ii.)

“Tylbalt is dead, and Romeo-banished,/ Hath slain ten thousand Tybalts. Tybalt’s death/ Was woe enough, if it had ended there:”

            The female figure fakes own death.

*Cleopatra locks herself in a monument and sends someone to tell Antony that she killed herself. (IV.xiv.)

*Juliet drinks a vial that is supposed to make her appear death-like in order to get out of marrying Paris and because she can’t be with Romeo. (IV.iii.)

            The male figure, upon finding out about his lover’s death, chooses to die as well.

*Antony asks his close friend Eros to kill himself, and eventually falls on his own sword. (IV.xiv.)

            “…Draw thy sword, and give me/ Sufficing strokes for death.”

*Romeo chooses to drink the poison so that he may spend eternity with Juliet. (V.iii.)

            “O true apothecary!/ Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.”

            The female figure commits suicide.

*Cleopatra tries to stab herself with a blade, but is stopped. She then finds an asp and willingly allows it to bite her. (V.ii.)

“With thy sharp teeth this knot intrinsicate/ Of life at once unite: poor venomous fool/ Be angry, and dispatch.”

*Juliet stabs herself with a blade. (V.iii.)

            “O Happy dagger,/ This is thy sheath,”

            The remaining characters mention how infamous a love the couple had.

*Caesar: “She shall be buried by her Antony:/ No grave upon the earth shall clip in it/ A pair so famous. High events as these/ Strike those that make them; and their story is/ No less in pity than his glory which/ Brought them to be lamented.” (V.ii.)

*Prince: “A glooming peace this morning with it brings;/ The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head:/ Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things;/ Some shall be pardon’d, and some punished:/ For never was a story of more woe/ Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.” (V.iii.) 

           

 Cool, right?