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Explore how Shakespeare develops EssayExplore how Shakespeare develops the themes of duty, responsibility, shaft and loyalty in the Antony and Cleopatra. Throughout the play Antony and Cleopatra, Shakespeare develops and explores the themes of duty, responsibility, love and loyalty from the actually beginning of the play Shakespeare places these themes in conflict with one another and these conflicts are embodied in the most obvious sense through Antonys rejection of the Roman pudding stone and its ideals for the love of Cleopatra and a far more frivolous laid back life in Egypt. And in turn these differences in ideals are conveyed to the audience in the beginning of the first act when Philo and Demetrius come to the stage and discuss Antonys dotage over Cleopatra and how it Oerflows the measure. Philo laments at how Antony, once a powerful warrior, triumvir of the Roman Empire and a triple pillar of the world has given up all this power and become the bellows and the fan tha t cool a gipsys lust.The language utilise by Shakespeare at this point in the play helps to establish the antithetical nature of the Egyptians and the Romans Philo describes Antony with powerful hyperboles and metaphors, evoking potent superhuman, heroic imagery as he speaks of Antonys eyes that glowed equal plated mars, passionately and verbosely referring to his captains heart which was so powerful that it burst the buckles on his breast. The conviction with which Philo speaks brings the political and war faring nature of the Romans to the forefront and it becomes clear that the world Antony engagementd to occupy is greatly at odds with the world he now inhabits with Cleopatra who is derogatorily described as having a tawny front (highlighting the Romans latent racial prejudices) and whose gipsys lust has reduced Antony to a strumpets fool. Philo never once uses positive rowing or language to describe the love amidst Antony and his queen he constantly uses words that undermi ne the actual power she has a queen.The potency of his hatred for Cleopatra is conveyed eloquently through his use of language Philo makes it obvious that in Rome intangible emotions such as love are undervalued in comparison to the far more corporeal physicality of great fights and the musters of war. It is very obvious that Philo does not view the birth between Antony and Cleopatra as a great or Romantic but one of blind and foolish lust which has distracted Antony from his responsibilities and his duty.Furthermore, when Antony himself speaks of his love for Cleopatra the contrast between his former Roman ideals and his new Egyptian way of thinking become clearer, his first line to Cleopatra as he enters the stage is Theres beggary in the love that can be reckoned, implying that his love for her is immeasurable and takes precedence above all, the fact this is powerful and Romantic statement is the very first thing Antony says as he enters the stage magnifies the sentiment behin d it.Further evidence of the greatness of Antonys love for Cleopatra is given when she chides him about the messenger from Rome who may be carrying a put across from Caesar or his wife Fulvia, both of whom represent his responsibilities at home and both of whom he dismisses in his grand and dramatic statements that he provides her in response to her galling (let Rome in Tiber melt and the dewy-eyed arch of the ranged empire fall), reassuring her that the two of them and their love for each other stand up peerless. It is Antonys use of imagery here that really encapsulates the depth of his love for Cleopatra, his acknowledgment of the greatness of Rome has a paradoxical quality to it as he confirms the greatness of its wide arch in the same breath and sentence as he confirms it.