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Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra is an intriguing story. One of the most thought provoking aspects of the story is the relationship between Marc Antony and Cleopatra. This relationship is a driving force behind much of the action in the story and motivates the actions of many of the characters. But is this a love story? I argue that it is not a love story but rather an indication of the two main characters love of power, especially on the part of Cleopatra.

There are certain aspects of characters actions that could be construed as signs of love and affection. When Antony learns of his wife’s death, Cleopatra becomes angered by his lack of grief, saying, “Now I see, I see in Fulvia’s death, how mine shall be received shall be!” This is interesting because, if Cleopatra had actually cared more about their relationship she would have been pleased by the prospects of having the opportunity to actually be together. At the beginning of the play, Antony’s men see Cleopatra as a “black haired gypsy” on the arm of their master, the “foremost soldier of the world.” Instead of even considering the fact that she could have taken a more legitimate role in Antony’s life, she laments some sort of feigned unimportance to gain Antony’s attention.

Cleopatra again shows her jealous nature when she learns of Antony’s marriage to Caesar’s sister, Octavia. She is only angry, though, until she learns that Octavia is comely and nothing special. She is certain of her ability to win Antony back. This event further illustrates that Cleopatra is less interested in forming a reliable relationship with her lover so much as she does not want anyone else to have him.

While Cleopatra’s actions are more indicative of a need for possession, Antony does things that demonstrate something deeper. All of Cleopatra’s jealousy is rather ironic considering the subsequent events in the play where, after learning of Cleopatra’s faked suicide, Antony commands one of his men to prove his loyalty by killing him. The man chooses to kill himself rather than kill his master. Much of the play supports the idea that, despite his failings as a strong leader, his men truly care for him. Perhaps they bemoan his relationship with Cleopatra because she really is a distraction to his being a great military commander. He is spending his time in Egypt with Cleopatra and ignoring his military and state duties in Rome. When news comes from Rome, he contemplates ignoring it, saying “What was Rome to him?” It is Cleopatra who encourages him to pay attention. Cleopatra understands that Marc Antony as a great military commander is more useful to her than Marc Antony, the man that loves her.

One would assume that being the leader of the free world would garner a certain amount of respect. As this article states, however, President Obama has not enjoyed much of this since taking office. From the very beginning when people questioned his American citizenship, Obama has been exposed to immense criticism and ridicule that is rather unique to this administration. This article suggests that the disrespect suffered by both Obama and his family is due to their race. Considering the recent discussion on race regarding protests in Ferguson, this seems like a conveniently timely argument to make.

Obama has separately asked for extra federal funds to reform police departments across the country, in the wake of protests that followed the death of Michael Brown

Were one to place my grasp of Aristotle on a scale of Plato’s allegory of the cave, from entirely ignorant and blind in the cave to gloriously enlightened, ready to go back and save the cave dwellers from their ignorance, I would liken myself to Antigone, who loved the impossible. Does that scale actually make sense? No, not really, which is about how I felt while reading Aristotle. I enjoyed reading Politics, but it was dense and sometimes hard to follow. Bottom line: Aristotle is hard.  Perhaps, though, this is because of the impossible nature of what Aristotle wrote about in Politics.

Aristotle asserts that the ideal form of government does not yet exist.  He finds fault with Sparta, Crete and Carthage (Politics 2). Aristotle’s ideal city would also be decidedly different than that of the society purported in Plato’s Republic, with all of its citizens sharing everything including children and property. This critique of other theories of government serves to show the need for a new and better theory. Obviously, Aristotle graciously provides one. In Book IV, Aristotle states that a constitutional government is the best. Balancing power between an educated middle class, an informed executive, and a balanced judicial class are necessary in his idyllic city.

 While his description may indeed sound great, it is more complicated than one might assume. To maintain such a government, the polis would need unity in their definitions of justice and equality, because differences in definitions of these concepts are the main cause of constitutional change (Politics V). Considering we are still debating the definition of justice in this very class, it does not seem possible that all members of a polis may ever be able to reach a definitive agreement on such matters.

Another major problem in Aristotle’s Politics concerns his writings on slavery. He seems to suggest that slaves are inherently incompetent, claiming, “from the hour of their birth, some are marked for subjection, others for rule” (Book VII). Slaves are thus not worthy of participating in his ideal government; they are necessary for the city to function but they are not worthy to be part of it. This line of argument is indicative of a lack of examination that is uncharacteristic of Aristotle’s otherwise deep musings. I understand that slavery was part of Aristotle’s world, but examining his writing now leads one to believe that his writings on slavery are not compatible with the rest of his writing on justice and liberty.

Still below angels, but above normal men, are heroes. Traditionally these are people who do the right thing at great personal sacrifice. Through virtually the entire history of Western civilization, heroes had the right-end-of-the-spectrum version of integrity. They did good out of a desire to do good — and that good was directed by some external ideal. But however “good” was defined, it existed in some sort of Platonic realm outside of the protagonist’s own id. The hero clung to a definition of “good” that was outside himself, and therefore something he had to reach for. Not anymore. 

            My post last week on the inherent (or not) heroism of soldiers sparked quite the discussion. I stand by my conclusion that joining the military does not automatically make someone the kind of hero we want them to be. These are the people we are giving guns, sending them off to defend the abstract idea of “our freedom”. So perhaps it’s more that we need them to be heroic so that they can carry the burden of all our expectations.

            All of this made me think about what makes the kind of hero not that Homer wrote about, but the kind of hero we want our soldiers to be. This article claims that heroism has lost the component of good that is outside oneself and has instead become something one must look inward to find. The author claims that this looking inward for moral guidance we find a conundrum – if we treat ourselves like God, holding our definition of integrity and good above all others, then is not everything we do ‘God’s will’?

It's been 70 years since we fought a war about freedom. Forced troop worship and compulsory patriotism must end

This article was interesting to read. We have discussed heroism a lot in this class and what actually constitutes heroism. As it is written about it Greek mythology, heroism requires great deeds and confrontation with one’s own mortality. In the present day, we use the word hero to describe a lot of people who do not fit this description – “hero” has largely come to mean a good person who is willing to make sacrifices to help others. Simply being a good person is not the kind of heroism the Greeks admired.

  Soldiers, arguably, may be the closest thing we have to the Greek heroes. They are undertaking dangerous missions for the sake of America. This article questions the assignment of the word hero to all soldiers. I think that is not entirely correct.

This week I have decided to revisit topics I have written about previously in the class: women in classic Greek Literature and the theme of heroism. Women are largely minor characters and given little faculty of their own. This makes sense for the time period in which these stories were written, but that does not mean these characters are not worthy of further examination. Given their status in society, though, women had little opportunity to become “heroes”. They cannot go off to battle to accomplish great deeds like Achilles nor can they go on arduous journeys like Odysseus. Antigone is a most supremely interesting character because she has the opportunity to become what no other female character we have encountered thus far in class readings has: a hero.

Antigone is distinctly different than other female characters we have encountered. She is memorable for more than her beauty like Helen or her cleverness like Penelope. Assuredly, though, she possesses these as well because otherwise she would not be fit to write about. With so few female characters present in these stories, the ones that are written about must be extraordinary. Antigone is also special in comparison to the average woman at the time. She is the daughter of the former king and queen and the niece of the current ruler. This gives her much more clout than say Odysseus’ nurse, who, though loyal and admirable, could not have been a hero. It is easy to find any of these female characters special because so little is expected of women. All the female characters we’ve read about before have perhaps been the cause of the action, such as Helen being the cause of the Trojan War, but they have not been the action themselves and thus they could not be heroes. Antigone is different.

As I have discussed previously, heroism, in the traditional Greek sense, requires sacrifice. It means confronting one’s own mortality. In the case of Odysseus, who cares deeply about his name being remembered for generations to come, or Achilles, who is destined for greatness and who slays countless men as he storms animallistically around the battlefield, they confronted mortality because it is a part of war or adventure. Greatness was achieved because a Greek male’s life demanded it. Antigone could not gain kleos in the same way. Her gender would simply not allow it. What her gender does grant her is more options. She is presented with an impossible decision: she could listen to everyone and avoid conflict by not burying her brother, marrying the dashing fiancé, and living more or less happily every after, or she could do the right thing and bury Polynices as is required by the gods.

This impossible decision is Antigone’s great battle or her arduous journey. She is confronted with making a choice between what is easy and what is right. She could listen to her sister Ismene, who is a perfectly respectable female character. Ismene, like most people really, is pragmatically thinking about the ramifications of her sister’s actions. With the death of all of their family having so recently occurred, Ismene is not wrong in thinking it would be best to, at the very least, survive. There is honor is being a survivor. In fact, we as a society today often give the name ‘hero’ to survivors of tragic events or to those battling diseases like cancer. Even the fact that we say someone ‘battles’ cancer as opposed to any other word is indicative of this societal mindset. While these kinds of people are undoubtedly brave and their struggles deserver tremendous respect, they are not heroes like Achilles, Odysseus, or Socrates. They might show bravery and resolve and strength, all attributes that we assign to heroism, but it is not the same thing.

The terminally ill 29-year-old, who took her own life Saturday, was certain in her wishes. But what about patients who seem motivated by depression or hopelessness?

Brittany Maynard received national attention last week after releasing a video concerning her decision to end her own life through assisted suicide after being diagnosed with terminal brain cancer and moving to Oregon so that she could be privy to its death-with-dignity law.

This is an interesting concept to consider in terms of justice. We have an abundance of laws that dictate one’s freedom in choosing how to live their life. We have freedoms of religion, speech, assembly, etc., but a debate continues over whether our rights in life include when to end it.

The article concentrates on mental illness’ potential role in the decision to end one’s life and whether it should matter. Other countries, including Switzerland and the Netherlands, do not have the same restrictions in place as the US regarding the mental state of patients seeking assisted suicide. The Netherlands has even started moving towards offering physician-assisted suicide to psychiatric patients.

Hard to rise, and harder to fall: Poor college grads stay poor about as much as rich high school dropouts stay rich.

            An important aspect of living “the good life” for many Americans is the opportunity to better one’s station in life. Many Americans came to this country with nothing in hopes of finding the “American Dream” – a better life they could make for themselves. While what we have today might be less drastic, the ideal remains the same. People still want to have control over their fate. This article indicates that the saying “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know,” is entirely right. People in a lower income bracket, even after attaining a college education, still learn less income-wise than their more wealthy counterparts that do not attend college,

WASHINGTON - Countless world leaders have walked that hallway before. On Wednesday, they reacted to news of an attack that saw gunfire sprayed through the hall of honour in Canada's Parliament.President Barack Obama said he was rattled by it.There ar...