Bowers Article

I really enjoyed the angle that Rick Bowers took in writing this article. He really gives Caesar all of the credit as kind of an unsung hero who was pushing all of the buttons and controlling pretty much every aspect of politics in the famous Shakespeare play. I recently saw SHU’s production of Antony and Cleopatra and was quite impressed. Seeing the play acted out on stage really helped me understand Caesar’s impact on the play better and this also helped me understand Bowers point as well. I thought that Bowers described Caesar pretty well saying that he was “far-sighted, cool, self-controlled, and so single-mindedly intent on the achievement of his ambition, that nothing, neither the happiness of his sister nor a genuine feeling of pity for Antony in his fall, can turn him from it.” This really describes his character in that Caesar is simply only after one thing and that is power, he doesn’t let Cleopatra or even Antony get in his path.

The main point that I think Bowers was trying to make however was that all of the characters listed in this play were wrapped up in a “godgame,” the term coined by John Fowles. I felt that he was right, one character constantly has the upper hand on the other, confusing them and keeping them unbalanced. Obviously it was Caesar.

To me, the passage that gave me the best idea of Bowers opinion of Caesar was on page 525. “And yet the drama takes it audience inside Caesar’s complex youthful paternalism, a paternalism that integrates personality and power within a gamesphere where Caesar makes the rules and the only thing disallowed is losing.”