Emotions and Passions Leading to Rise and Fall of Leaders: A Study of Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra

 

Dr. Shahida

 

Assistant Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences

NIT, Kurukshetra, Haryana

 

 

ABSTRACT:

The paper seeks to review the recent literature devoted to Emotional Intelligence, discuss the role and importance of passions and emotions in leading and how even the best leaders cannot escape the difficulties involved in managing and balancing them, taking Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra as a case study. There was a time when it was widely believed that leaders need to suppress their emotions and passions to succeed, as for the fulfillment of higher goal one has to work with mind and not heart. But in the present situation with the publication of Daniel Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence (1995) this idea is rejected and emphasis is placed on the leader’s need to develop the ability to understand, balance, and manage their emotions as well as of the followers. Shakespeare’s plays are now widely acclaimed for imparting leadership and management lessons. His plays demonstrate the different roles a leader can take and the different skills needed to be successful. Play after play has taught the 16th century audiences lessons about how leaders organised their rise to power and how their failures precipitated their decline and these lessons are still relevant for modern leaders. In-fact, Antony and Cleopatra gives an insight into the heart and mind of two great leaders and their strengths and weaknesses. On one hand a Roman General known for his bravery and on the other side an Egyptian Empress known for her charm and beauty. The play beautifully portrays the passions and emotions of true lovers but at the same time it arouses many questions related to the dilemmas, doubts, fear and anxieties of leaders.

 

KEYWORDS: Emotional intelligence, leadership, passion, emotions, leading

 

When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but creatures of emotion. 

(Dale Carnegie)

 

Antony and Cleopatra are one of those historical leaders who have been an object of eternal debate, better known to the modern world as ‘eternal lovers’. Historians have written a great deal about their love affair and unfortunate end. But what makes their love affair unique or grand is that one cannot doubt the genuineness of the emotions of the impassioned lovers, though it is charged with being a political intrigue. It’s one of the most popular historical episode imparting lessons on leading when passions override duties, reason with insanity and heart over mind.

 

 

 


William Shakespeare’s genius finds its best expression in this drama. A harmonious blend of history and tragedy, dealing with two colossal figures, one being the queen of Egypt and the other a Roman General whose errors in judgment leads to catastrophic downfall. Shakespeare has dealt with these great historical figures with utmost sincerity, highlighting weaknesses of great leaders who are first human, heart winning over mind, and their tragic fall arouses sympathy and admiration for their genuine love.

 

Antony and Cleopatra is also declared to be the best problem play dealing with the themes like political intrigue, power struggle, war and its consequences, and the plight of the two desperately impassioned lovers. In the present context this drama serves as a case study to analyse the role of emotions and passions in leading and the need for leaders to be emotionally intelligent.

 

The great classical philosophers—Plato, Aristotle, Spinoza, Descartes, Hobbes, Hume—had realized the importance of emotions and have presented theories of emotion but the twentieth-century philosophers of mind and psychologists tended to neglect them—perhaps because the sheer variety of phenomena covered by the word “emotion”. But now it is recognized that emotions are important and they are responsible for behavior.

 

Emotions in simple terms are believed to be associated with feelings. According to the Oxford English Dictionary the term emotions is defined as “strong instinctive feeling such as love or fear, hatred etc”; “A mental state that arises spontaneously rather than conscious effort and is often accompanied by physiological changes”, says an Online Dictionary. There is lot of confusion as to how to define ‘emotions’ and Hillman declares there is “a curious and overwhelming confusion” in the theory of emotion. It is an umbrella term that includes dozens of related terms and so we take up emotions as those intense feelings which a person experiences at a point of time as a reaction to some stimulus.

 

Though neglected in the past, emotions have once again become the focus of vigorous interest in philosophy, as well as in other branches of cognitive science in the recent years. Leading and emotions are very well connected, in-fact they are inseparable. Leading is all about having the ability to motivate. Motivation comes when you touch the emotions of the followers, thus the importance of emotions in leading cannot be ignored. History is full of leaders who have touched the heart of the followers by giving them emotional support and security. That is those leaders are successful who have appealed to people’s feelings of insecurity and fear and inspired, ignited their passions and brought out best in their followers. It is not only important for the leader to understand the emotions of the followers but equally important is to have the ability to understand their own. Here emotional intelligence comes into play.

It was Peter Salovey and Jack Mayer who suggested for the first time that individuals differ in their ability to perceive, understand, and use emotion as a source of information. They called this ability as Emotional Intelligence (Salaeditor and Mount 2006). Emotional intelligence can be defined as a set of competencies demonstrating the ability one has to recognize his or her behavior, moods, impulses, and to manage them best according to the situation. Emotional intelligence involves the ability to perceive, appraise, and express emotions accurately (Salaeditor and Mount 2006). It also involves emotional empathy; where one is not only able to understand accurately one’s emotions but also of others, and is able to manage and control those emotions intelligently.

 

Emotionally intelligent leaders are those who know how to inspire, arouse passion and keep people motivated and committed. They are aware of their own communication and how their style and behavior affects other people’s moods and performance. They practice what they preach and are transparent and honest. They are able to generate energy and optimism and give people a sense of clarity and direction even in times of turbulence and crisis. Emotionally intelligent leaders create an emotional climate that fosters commitment, loyalty and above all trust in an organization. Thus, emotionally intelligent leaders are successful as per theory of emotional intelligence.

 

But the other side is that, is it always possible for leaders to be emotionally intelligent. Even the great leaders are human first with feelings, emotions, passions and personal life. Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra present before us the passions and emotions of true lovers but at the same time raises many questions related to the dilemmas, doubts, fear and anxieties of a leader.

 

Although Aristotle identified plot as the soul of tragedy, for the past 350 years, it is primarily Shakespeare’s characters, not his plots or even his themes, that have enthralled readers and audiences alike. They have been representing human nature. He self consciously tried to read the minds of men and women of diverse places with the view to address the permanent problems of human life. Harold Bloom in agreeing with the Johnsonian tradition says that for “nearly four centuries after Shakespeare, he went beyond all precedents (even Chaucer) and invented the human as we continue to know it”. These characters give an insight into the understanding of human nature. Shakespeare like a good historian and unlike historicists, uses history to manifest the varieties and possibilities of the different facets of human life, he liberates us from the temporal and help us to discover the permanent and highlights the universal in history.

 

Both Antony and Cleopatra are hailed as great leaders and their tragic downfall can teach contemporary leaders serious lessons pertaining to managing and balancing personal emotions and passions.  The story of Antony and Cleopatra is drawn from Plutarch’s Life of Antony, Shakespeare presents before us a matured love story, very different from Romeo Juliet. We have two great historical figures, mature and far from experiencing their first love.

 

Allan Bloom finds that no where love has been presented at such high stature, as he says: “never before or after was love actually put in the balance to be weighed against ecumenical imperium. “Let Rome in Tiber melt” (I.i.33), says Antony at the beginning of the play. This is no idle statement. Rome could be his, and he, for a moment at least, believes that there is no contest, that love is beyond compare more choiceworthy… The play pushes the political and the erotic imaginations to their absolute extremes. Shakespeare’s Antony, as opposed to Plutarch’s, cannot help but draw us at least momentarily, towards a desire to have such a love”.

 

The main issue in Antony and Cleopatra is not sinning and chastity but conflict between head and heart. It is the story of the supreme conflict between politics and love. Antony is caught between the duties of a warrior and a lover. Shakespeare’s Antony is a person for whom we are filled with admiration, sympathy and nostalgia for he represents the purest form of a lover and a soldier, trying hard to be honest in both the roles.

 

Antony is a brave general who is being destroyed due to his love affair. It is through his friends that we are introduced to his true nature, they love and admire him and his case is taken as that of a great warrior losing his martial spirit and not a sinner indulged in lust. Allan Bloom analyses Shakespeare’s Antony and suggests that:

he suffers from immoderation, which is largely to be judged not in itself but in its effect on his capacity to act well. The category is vice, not sin, and it is a vice that can be linked with great generosity of spirit.

 

Antony is the only man in the play who loves, and Enobarbus the only one who sympathises with him in his passion. His perception about love is best expressed in the following lines:

Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide arch

Of the rang’d empire fall! Here is my space,

Kingdoms are clay: our dungy earth a like

Feeds beast as man;  the nobleness of life

Is to do thus: when such a mutual pair,

And such a twain can do’t, in which I bind,

On pain of punishment, the world to weet

We stand up peerless.(I.i.33-40)

 

This is Antony’s perception of love higher above everything else and in which Rome appears slight.

 

Antony and all his friends are having a wonderful time in Egypt. They drink, feast and make love. It is for them heaven on earth. The picture of the regal Antony and Cleopatra roaming the street together at night, spying on the pleasures of the common folk, is most enticing. But Antony is clearly a divided man who is uncomfortable in his neglect of his imperial responsibilities. There is a constant conflict that goes on between head and heart. He is not able to disentangle himself from the strong bindings of Cleopatra and pleasures she offers. At times it seems he regrets for having seen her and to which Enobarbus replies:

O sir, you had then left unseen a wonderful piece of work,

which not to have been blest withal,

would have discredited your travel (I.ii.150-153)

 

Antony seems aware throughout his involvement with Cleopatra is fatal, but always, as he says, “I’ the east my pleasure lies (II.iii.39). This sense of evasion of responsibility makes him weak in the face of Octavius. He freely admits his guilt and agrees to change his conduct. He is apologetic and his sense of duty is evoked but again it was impossible for him to break free from Cleopatra forever. This was because he loved her and that love was not lust but genuine. His suffering is beyond expression when he needs to make a choice between Cleopatra and Rome.

 

The gravest mistake that Antony committed was marrying Octavia, for the sake of political reasons. He married her for cementing the bond with Octavius, the future Emperor of Rome. This marks the beginning of his declining political career. He could never love Octavia, though tried his best to continue, ultimately returns to Cleopatra who offered him infinite variety. This is the beginning of his ruin.“The ruin is magnificent and it becomes more sublime as he falls” says Harold Bloom.

 

Throughout the play he is compared to a Herculean hero whose past exploits were praiseworthy. Even his friends acknowledge his bravery but saddened by his alliance with Cleopatra:

Nay this dotage of our general’s

O’erflows the measure: those his goodly eyes,

That o’er the files and musters of the war

Have glow’d like plated Mars, now bend, now turn

The office and devotion of their view

upon a tawny front: his captain’s heart,

Which in the scuffles of great fight hath burst

The buckles on his breast, reneges all temper,

And is become the bellows and the fan

To cool a gipsy’s lust. (I.i.1-10)

Antony is throughout the play caught in the conflict between head and heart. He indulges in sensual pleasures and luxuries but is constantly reminded of the duties. His duties towards Rome and that restrict him from enjoying the pleasures of the East. He is presented as a man upon whom sun is going down: his genius wanes in the presence of Octavius Caesar. He is hopelessly outclassed by his imperial rivalry, who has inherited the canniness of his uncle and adoptive father Julius Caesar. It seems after the series of victories and glory, he is tired of it and in-fact tired of everything Roman. He wants to lose himself in the arms of Cleopatra where he finds heaven.

 

Of Shakespearean representation of women, Cleopatra is the most subtle and formidable, by universal consent. She is the most enigmatic character Shakespeare has ever created; allowing us to judge and interpret in multiple ways, in-fact Antony also fails to understand her and finds her mysterious offering infinite variety.

 

Historically, the last pharaoh, Cleopatra VII preserved the Egyptian political and economic independence from direct Roman rule longer than expected by her wit, intelligence and shrewdness. She was the beloved of three great Roman leaders Julius Caesar, Pompey and Antony.  Historians claim that she used her sexuality as a powerful weapon to rule over Egypt. As an ambitious ruler, Cleopatra VII combined political astuteness with her personal charms to save her kingdom.

 

Before her affair with Antony, Cleopatra had already two major Roman leaders as her lovers, Julius Caesar and Pompey. She seems to like to sleep with the powers and they certainly seem to like to sleep with her. She makes power very personal. Her court life is filled with fun and frolic. She doesn’t work much, yet her household and country affairs run smoothly. Antony the third lover seems to be completely bewitched by her charms. He had forsaken the traditional Roman marriage and happily lives in sin with Cleopatra. Even after twelve years of cohabitation, they are still passionate about each other. She gives no chance to Antony to move out of her charms. This was her way of holding and exerting power using her beauty and sexuality.

 

Cleopatra has been presented as a good actress. She keeps Antony in doubt and confusion, manipulating him and constantly and guiltlessly exploits his attachment to her. Her widely alternating moods have a genuineness that astounds. She is what would today be called strong or real personality. It is these charms which attracted Antony towards her leaving behind even his honour. She has an appeal which no man can resist, in-fact it is only at one place she appears to have lost her charm and that was when she runs away from the battle of Actium. That was the most unfortunate event leading to doom of the couple.

The whole problem starts when Egypt and Rome go to war. Egypt is a sovereign country but pledges allegiance to Rome. It’s a delicate balance which Cleopatra had maneuvered with great skill in the past having the leaders of the Roman world as lovers. That reflects her negotiating ability as a leader and as a woman she uses her sexuality to get things done in her favour. The problem arises when decides to fight a war against Rome. She can be a good negotiator, as in the past she could rule over Egypt with this skill, but when she decides to play the role of a military leader, she fails most shamefully. The defeat at the battle of Actium marks the downfall of Cleopatra and Antony.

 

Cleopatra enjoys exerting her sexual powers, and she enjoys having others watch her showing off her beauty. It is her high status that keeps her protected from others or she doesn’t care as she is a queen. The way she exerts her sexuality in negotiations is subtle and even Antony is aware of this as he says “She’s cunning beyond thought”. She goes to the extent of trying to seduce Octavius Caesar, though not openly, but that was another way to get regain control over the whole situation and retain power.

 

Ultimately Cleopatra finds that something is more important than power and that is love. She agrees with Antony that the nobleness of life is to love. She loves Antony and finally she realizes that it’s time to step down.  She can no longer play the same game with Octavius. She preferred to be dead   and united with Antony than living and dealing with Caesar. This was also because she was aware of the fact that Octavius Caesar will be finally beaten once she kills herself. Then he won’t be able to take her Rome as a captive, she won’t be a trophy for him to parade. So she stages her death beautifully, sensually and dies in orgasmic bliss, calling to Antony.      

 

On the other hand Octavius Caesar is the only man who has a sense of duty and is most sincere in discharging his duties. He has practically become a synonym of the Roman Empire. The impressions he produces on us are of coldness, nullity, and death. He is not a villain and is not even aware of the evil he is doing, in-fact takes delight in indulging in it, separating two lovers. On the contrary he believes himself to be the noblest of Roman of them all. He has intelligence, but not enough to have understood what Samuel Butler when he said “As we should not do evil that good may come, so we should not do good that evil may come.”

 

Inspite of all this Shakespeare does not let Octavius degenerate into a mere personification of power in the abstract. He keeps him human by a number of little emotional touches. By convincing us of the sincerity of his love for his sister he multiplies many times the ignominy of his sacrifice of her to his career. For he feels Antony degenerated by giving up his power and prestige to a whore (Cleopatra). On the contrary he himself indulges unknowingly in an equally humiliating act of giving his sister to an empire. The alliance was purely for political reasons. Caesar uses his sister as an excuse to wage war against Antony, with the intention of taking over Rome as sole ruler.

 

Shakespeare presents in his plays a range of power hungry characters like Richard III, Cardinal Pandulph and Henry IV who aspires to reach to the highest points but fail miserably, he is one such Shakespearean character, power thirsty who manages to reach to the summit without falling. But in that process, he lost his soul.  He stands victorious as the sole ruler of Rome but ultimately stands defeated with the death of the eternal lovers. 

 

Shakespeare’s portrayal of Antony and Cleopatra arouses our love and admiration for them unlike Dryden. Dryden on the other hand finds Antony’s love for Cleopatra mere lust and hedonistic indulgence. In his famous heroic tragedy All for Love, he has created a different image of the lovers unlike Shakespeare where they appear to have committed crime for loving each other so passionately. In the Preface to All for Love, he says:

 

That which is wanting to work up the pity to a greater heighth, was not afforded me by the story: for the crimes of love which they both committed, were not occasion’d by a necessity, or fatal, ignorance, but were wholly voluntary, since our passions are, or ought to be within our power.

 

Harold Bloom finds Dryden’s feelings for Antony and Cleopatra devoid of pity and as he clearly regarded their mutual passion as reprehensible and catastrophic. 

 

The play presents before us three leaders. Each has a different and unique way of leading, facing different dilemma and doubts. Antony a brave Roman General who reached to its height of success during Julius Caesar’s  rule and even after his death, he was known for his valour, the way he avenged Caesar’s death. His alliance with Cleopatra marks the beginning of his decline. He was so passionately devoted to her that he did not even hesitate to put at stake his honor. Cleopatra on the other hand emerges out to be a shrewd politician who forms alliances for political reasons. But in the play she ultimately realizes that love is above everything and submits herself completely. Octavius Caesar proves to be a leader for whom Rome was important and everything assumed secondary place, but in the end he too realizes that the couple Antony and Cleopatra were genuinely in love and remarked:

 

She shall be buried by her Antony. No grave upon the earth shall clip in it A pair so famous. High events as these Strike  hose that make them, and their story is No less pity than his glory which Brought them to be lamented. (V.ii.351-56)

 

For the practitioners of leadership studies, this text has lot to offer. It cannot be denied that Shakespeare was very good at understanding and portraying human nature and especially leaders. His plays deal with kings and queen who can be taken as leaders in the modern context. Though it is agreed that he wrote at a time when situation was very different from the present one, but the problems leaders face today are not very different from the one Shakespeare discusses in his plays. 

 

Antony and Cleopatra raise many thought provoking questions like, do leaders need to be devoid of emotions and passions? What comes first duty or love? What happens when passions override duties? Are leaders not human suffering from the same weaknesses or they need to be superhuman? The fact cannot be denied that we are creatures of emotion rather than logic, but what needs to be understood is that managing emotions intelligently is important for leaders else, one has to face humiliation, shame, defeat. Antony and Cleopatra arouses our sympathy and admiration, at the same time warns leaders of the results when passions override duties.

 

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Received on 17.12.2013

Modified on 02.01.2014

Accepted on 05.02.2014

© A&V Publication all right reserved

Research J. Humanities and Social Sciences. 5(1): January-March, 2014, 93-98