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Act 3, Scene 5 Summary of Antony and Cleopatra
Act 3, Scene 5 of Antony and Cleopatra is a brief transitional scene taking place in another room of Antony’s house in Athens. The scene centres on a conversation between Domitius Enobarbus and Eros regarding the rapidly deteriorating political situation. Enobarbus remarks on the state of the Roman Empire. He metaphorically observes that the world now only has a “pair of chaps” (jaws), and that if one were to throw all the food in the world between them, “they’ll grind the one the other.”
Eros then vividly describes Antony’s current state of severe agitation. He reports that Antony is pacing in the garden, kicking at the rushes on the floor, and angrily crying out, “Fool Lepidus!” Eros also notes that Antony is threatening to cut the throat of the officer who murdered Sextus Pompey. Finally, Eros delivers the critical military update that their “great navy’s rigg’d” to sail for Italy to confront Caesar. He informs Enobarbus that Antony wants to see him immediately, and despite Enobarbus’s grim muttering that “‘Twill be naught,” the two men depart to attend their general.
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Analysis of Act 3, Scene 5
Enobarbus’s striking image of the world as a pair of jaws captures the new, dangerous geopolitical reality. With Pompey defeated and Lepidus sidelined, only Octavius Caesar and Mark Antony remain. Enobarbus astutely recognises that the Roman Empire is not big enough to satisfy both of their appetites, and the two remaining powers are inevitably destined to turn on one another and grind each other down.
Antony’s frustrated outburst of “Fool Lepidus!” is a confirmation that Lepidus has lost his political standing. In other words, the three-man rule that briefly held the Roman world together has been destroyed.
Antony’s powerless fury is visible in this scene. His volatile and reactive state is portrayed especially by his spurning of the rushes in his garden and his issuing of threats against Pompey’s murderer. His anger over Pompey’s death reveals a lingering sense of misdirected rage regarding Caesar’s ruthless consolidation of power, an escalation he has failed to control.
Eros’s confirmation that the navy is rigged for Italy signifies that all diplomatic avenues have failed. This brief scene therefore acts as an accelerator; it moves the plot rapidly from the collapse of the political marriage in Scene 4 directly into the preparations for a massive civil war between the world’s two greatest leaders.
Related:
- Act 3, Scene 1 Summary and Analysis of Antony and Cleopatra
- Act 3, Scene 2 Summary and Analysis of Antony and Cleopatra
- Act 3, Scene 3 Summary and Analysis of Antony and Cleopatra
- Act 3, Scene 4 Summary and Analysis of Antony and Cleopatra
- Act 3, Scene 6 Summary and Analysis of Antony and Cleopatra
- Act 3, Scene 7 Summary and Analysis of Antony and Cleopatra
- Act 3, Scene 8 Summary and Analysis of Antony and Cleopatra
- Act 3, Scene 9 Summary and Analysis of Antony and Cleopatra
- Act 3, Scene 10 Summary and Analysis of Antony and Cleopatra
- Act 3, Scene 11 Summary and Analysis of Antony and Cleopatra
- Act 3, Scene 12 Summary and Analysis of Antony and Cleopatra
- Act 3, Scene 13 Summary and Analysis of Antony and Cleopatra
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