Antony's Examined Life
The character of Mark Antony that we see in the Shakespeare works Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra is a man we have established as having “taken the deal” and living an “unexamined life”. For me however, his growth seems to portray not how to live an unexamined life, but how to misinterpret one’s own examination of their life. When Caesar is assassinated, Antony does in fact recognize that the morally correct thing to do would be to defend his friends honor and memory, even if that meant dying himself. But his subsequent course of action in becoming one of the triumvirate rulers of Rome doesn’t come off to me as the decisions of a man who hasn’t examined his life (though it certainly does seem to be his way of taking the deal). Instead it seems very much that he’s examined his life up to this point, and further examined how he’d like the rest of his life to play out. He begins the play by expressly stating exactly what he thinks his priorities should be:
“Let Rome in Tiber melt and the wide arch of the ranged empire fall. Here is my space.” – Antony (Antony and Cleopatra, Act I Sc. I, Lines 38-39
This to me does not sound like a man who has not examined his lot in life, though based on his background it does seem that he is re-imagining his sense of justice. I posit that it’s entirely plausible that the man who was Mark Antony before the assassination of Julius Caesar had not undertaken this examination of his life. He might have had pre-conceived notions of what was just and morally appropriate for a man of his station and upbringing based on Roman values and popular consensus, but when dealing with the aftermath of so life changing an event as becoming one of the three most powerful men in Rome, I’d argue that it is at that point that he begins to truly examine his life, displaying values and making decisions that reflect his true nature. What this means is that Mark Antony was never truly a heroic man, despite his military successes and “loyalty” to his friends. Living an examined life for Mark Antony meant living in a virtual state of pleasure and excess with Cleopatra. I’d argue that honor and heroism is are not traits that Mark Antony ever truly held, but rather were illusory perceptions both he and his society made due to his military prowess, and that this is something that both he and Octavian realize.
“No, my wronged sister. Cleopatra hath nodded him to her. He hath given his empire up to a whore, who are now levying the kings o’ th’ earth for war.” - Octavian (Antony and Cleopatra, Act III Sc. VI, Lines 75 – 78)
This turn of character for Antony brings in question one of the core concepts of heroism we’ve been discussing: what is an examined life? Is it adhering strictly to societies morals and remaining ready and willing to display heroism? Is it facing the true nature of your character and unashamedly living it out? I’d argue that what an examined life would include would be a reconciliation of both: striving to be both honest with yourself and heroic in the face of adversity. For those altruists among us these two concepts will synergize much more apparently, but for those like Mark Antony, who live in a false sense of self-understanding until radical change forces introspection such synergy may be wholly absent. Mark Antony’s moment of heroism wasn’t to die with Caesar, because his character never had to confront such divergence in his life before.
