This godlessness might initially be viewed as being cynical. However, when one looks at the social and political climate of Shakespeare's time, and the reality that England was just passing through a conversion from Catholicism to the Anglican church, driven by Henry VIII's desire to divorce and remarry, it might not be accurate to label godlessness in the play as cynical. Perhaps that is the view that Shakespeare is suggesting is idyllic, given the turmoil that organized religion had helped create in his country in recent history. This lack of a clear-cut explanation of the godlessness in the play, and of the playful way in which Cleopatra obliterates any claim Antony might actually have to self-divinity, shows how cynicism and idealism are caught in this cycle.

Nowhere in the play is the cycle of cynicism and idealism more dramatically showcased than in the play's final scenes. Caesar has conquered Egypt...
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