Introduction
“All For Love” is a heroic tragedy written by the greatest poet and playwright ‘John Dryden’. It was written in 1677 in blank verse. This play is an imitation of William Shakespeare’s play ‘Antony And Cleopatra’, set in the last days of their lives. But like Shakespeare’s play, it is not based on the political intrigue of Rome and Egypt but as the title suggests, ‘All For Love’. It is based on the tragic love affair between Mark Antony the Roman General and Cleopatra, the Egyptian Queen. It tells us about tragic Love, Honour, political power and the consequences of Uncontrolled Passion.
John Dryden dedicated this play to an aristocratic patron – Thomas Osborne, Earl Of Danby.
About John Dryden
John Dryden was an English poet, literary critic, translator and playwright. He largely dominated the literary world of Restoration English and became England’s first poet Laureate in 1668. Dryden is credited with establishing the heroic couplet as a standard form of English poetry by writing successful satires, religious pieces, fables, epigrams, compliments prologues and playing with it. Among his world-famous works include- Absalom and Achitophel, Mac Flecknoe and The Medall.
Character List Of All For Love
Antony – A Middle-aged Roman general who rules the Roman Empire along with Lepidus and Octavius Caesar. He is torn between his desire for Cleopatra and the demands of his position as a world ruler.
Cleopatra – She is the Queen of Egypt and the lover of Antony. She is a woman of beauty and intelligence.
Octavius Caesar – The adopted son of Julius Caesar. He is determined to ultimately be the sole ruler of the Roman Empire.
Ventidius – He is a general in the Roman army and one of Antony’s close friends. He also likes Cleopatra.
Octavia – Antony’s wife and Octavius’s sister. Antony abandons her for Cleopatra.
Alexas – He is Cleopatra’s servant and one of her advisors.
Serapion – Serapion is one of the priests of the Temple of Isis.
There are also many minor Characters in the play.
Iras – Cleopatra’s Maid
Myris – Another Priest of Temple.
Agrippina & Antonia – Antony’s young daughter.
Charmion – Cleopatra’s maid.
Lepidus – Mediator between Antony & Caesar.
Summary & Analysis of Play
Antony arrives in Egypt and lives with Cleopatra. Both of them decide to live together despite the political turmoil.
The play opens with the two priests, Serapion and Myris, who are worried for the future of their Kingdom. It is because Antony and Cleopatra have recently lost the battle of Actium to Octavius. In the meantime, General Ventidius arrives to console Antony. He is Antony’s Old General and a Romand Soldier. He is the true well-wisher of Antony. He informs Antony that the Syrian Army is ready to support him with the condition that he must leave Cleopatra. At first, Antony refuses to follow his suggestion but finally, he agrees to leave Egypt but not Cleopatra.
Alexas informs Cleopatra about the discussion between Antony and Ventidius. He the discussion between Antony and Ventidius. He also tells her about their plan to leave Egypt. Cleopatra becomes hurt. She asks Alexas to go to Antony and convince him to visit Cleopatra. Meanwhile, Antony and Ventidius have now agreed to be together. When they are laughing at the cowardice of Octavius Ceasar, Alexas enters and tells Antony that Cleopatra has sent some gifts as a token of her love for Antony.
Alexas requests Antony to visit her once before leaving. Antony accepts the gifts. Ventidius stop him from meeting Cleopatra but Antony does not listen to him. The meeting takes place. The mutual conversation starts when Cleopatra says that she would die if she left her. Antony replies that he can never leave a woman who loves him so deeply. He tells Ventidius that he does not need to support of the Syrian Army. At this, Ventidius become annoyed and goes away Saying,
“O Women! Women! All the gods
have not such power of doing good
to man as you of doing harm.”
Once again, Ventidius comes to Antony and tells them that Octavius Ceasar has raised a Strong Army. At this, Antony informs Ventidius that he knows a novel and brave Soldier named Dolobella. He is now in the army of Octavius. The reason behind the bitterness of their relationship is that once in the past her confessed his love for Cleopatra.
Ventidius bring Dolabella back and Antony reconciles with him. Ventidius and Dolabella remind Antony of his wife Octavia and bring Octavia and two daughters before Antony. Antony is moved when he unites with his daughters. He decides to leave Cleopatra. Meanwhile, Cleopatra receives the news of reconciliation between Antony and Octavia. She becomes disheartened and furious. Cleopatra realizes that she will lose Antony.
Antony is ready to leave Egypt. He persuades Dolabella to bid goodbye to Cleopatra. He lacks the courage to do so. When Dolabella sees Cleopatra, he confesses his love for her. In the course of the conversation, Dolabella lies to her by saying that Antony used hard words for her. Cleopatra faints upon hearing this. Dolabella becomes nervous and says her the truth. Octavia and Ventidius overhear them. They assume that they have fallen in love. They inform Antony about this. Antony is enraged by hearing about their love connection.
A little later, Dolabella and Cleopatra enter. They are unaware of the situation. Antony blames both of them for being deceitful. They protest but Antony dominates. Antony weeps at this separation.
Cleopatra blames Alexas for bringing her to such a situation. She pulls out a dagger to kill herself. But Serapian prevents her from doing so. To prove Cleopatra’s innocence Alexas goes to Antony and tells him that Cleopatra has committed suicide. Antony recognizes Cleopatra’s innocence and feels that the world is useless for him without her. He asks Ventidius to kill him. But Ventidius instead kills himself. Antony falls on his sword and gets badly wounded but is still alive.
Meanwhile, Cleopatra comes to know about what Alexas told Antony. She rushed into the room and found him lying on the ground. Antony is about to die. In such an hour of despair, Antona and Cleopatra reconcile. Antony dies in her lap. Just before his death, she promises him to join him very soon. She royally dresses herself. She orders her maid to bring a poisonous asp. She lets the asp sting her and finally dies beside Antony. After seeing their bodies Priests remark that both of them will unite in heaven.
Egypt is conquered by Caesar and the play ends with the tragic death of Antony and Cleopatra.
Themes of “All For Love”
John Dryden’s ‘All For Love’ is a tragedy that retells the story of Antony and Cleopatra. The play deals with themes such as tragic love, honor political power and the consequences of uncontrollable passion.
Love
In the play, Antony claims to love Cleopatra. In fact, he has abandoned his wife, Octavia and their children to live with Cleopatra in Egypt. He clearly does not love his family. Now we wonder if he loves Cleopatra their relationship is more about lust than love. When Octavia’s brother, Octavius Caesar threatens to attack Alexandria because of Antony’s disloyalty, Antony starts to mope and distance herself from Cleopatra. His “Love” quickly falls away when he becomes distracted from his lust.
Antony further reveals his lack of love for Cleopatra when Ventidius tempts Antony to fight Octavius.
Cleopatra seems to have a better grasp of Love than Antony. Octavius tempts her to betray Antony, but she declines. Antony always blamed her for all their problems, whining that he would be safe in Rome if he hadn’t fallen in love with her and even questioning her devotion by reminding her that she had once been Octavius’s mistress. Cleopatra potentially puts up with Antony’s Sulky complaining and the two make up.
On the other hand, Antony’s wife knows that Antony does not love her, but he is still her husband and she wants to be with her and their Children. She almost succeeds in convincing Antony to return to Rome.
Passion
Perhaps the most important theme in the play and what keeps Cleopatra and Antony in a magnetic pull towards one another the entire time, is passion. Both of the lovers fell passionately – in both a sexual and romantic sense – towards one another. The passion they feel for once another exceeds all reason, and it is what keeps Cleopatra and Antony continually making poor decisions.
Whenever Antony is on the brink of leaving Egypt once and for all, he is once again called back by his passion for Cleopatra. Likewise in the end, after Antony has died, Cleopatra determines that she would rather die than live under Caesar. She chooses death over life because of her passionate love for Antony.
Power
The play concerns two influential leaders, Antony, A Roman leader, and Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt. Both of these rulers wield a tremendous amount of Power, but when the play opens, their power falters as a result of their affair.
“All For Love” as a Heroic Tragedy
A heroic tragedy is a type of play prevalent in Restoration England during the 1660 and 1670. ‘John Dryden’ is certainly the best and probably the first of the restoration heroic tragedy play writer. His play ‘All for Love’ followed all the rules of heroic tragedy. Such As-
It is characteristic of a heroic play that the hero is placed in conflict between his love and honour. Throughout the play “All For Love”, Antony wrestles with the conflict between his love for Cleopatra and his duties to the Roman Empire. In Act 1, he engages Cleopatra in conversation about the nature and depth of their love. Neglects his duties towards Rome.
“Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the wife arch of the raged empire fall.”
For being a successful tragedy, an unbeaten tragic hero is needed. Antony is the tragic hero who is a person of noble birth with heroic qualities. But he is fated to doom and destruction. He shirks his political duty for the sake of his love relationship with Cleopatra. His peers deem Antony’s actions to be irresponsible and believe they will be the cause of his downfall.
Dryden says in the preface of the play ‘All for Love’ that
“In my style, I have professed
to imitate the divine Shakespeare,
which that I might perform
more freely, I have disencumbered
myself from rhyme.”
He gave up the heroic couplet of his early plays and accepted the blank verse to give an elevated style in Shakespeare’s manner. His handling of the blank verse in the play is surely skilful.
In this preface to ‘All For Love’ Dryden explains his view that the love between Antony and Cleopatra is an “Illegal Love” based on “Vice”. Therefore the plot fails to attain its moral aim.
Heroic tragedy contains the fall of a great emperor because of the Character flaw of heroes. In Dryden’s tragedy, Antony largely loses his major confrontation with Octavius. When he meets Ventidius, his trusted general, he weeps over the reality that she destroyed much of the Roman Empire because of his love for Cleopatra.
In Cleopatra’s portrayal too Dryden displays the characteristic of the heroic play. Nowhere in the play, not even when she is banished, has she deviated from her steadfast love for Antony.
She says,
“I love you more, even now you are unkind,
then you have loved me most.”
She considers her love so sacred. Such a portrayal of the heroine of perfection is found only in heroic plays.
Ending with death is the most important feature of a tragedy. “All For Love” ends with the death of the hero and heroine fulfilling this convention of tragedy. Altogether five people commit suicide in the last act of the play – Antony Cleopatra, Ventidius and two maids. All of them do this for their affection with regard to someone.
These are some characteristics of heroic tragedy, which we can find in the play “All For Love”.
Conclusion
Thus, the title play “All For Love” signifies a deep and selfless commitment to love. It suggests that the characters in the story are willing to do anything for the sake of love, even if it means sacrificing their well-being or happiness. Overall, ‘All For Love’ is a tragic play that explores the complexities of love, loyalty and duty. The final words of the play suggest that true love is beyond all values.
“No Lovers lived so great or died so well.”
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