John Dryden’s All for Love is a heroic tragedy written in the blank verse where Dryden tries to reinvigorate the ancient Roman drama by writing under the principles that he sees as fit for a literary work. The work, which is a masterpiece, can also be analyzed under the guideline of Pope and Johnson. The plot is based on the well-known story of Shakespeare’s famous work Anthony and Cleopatra and focuses on the last moments of the two lovers.
Three main figures of Literature – John Dryden, Alexander Pope, and Samuel Johnson – have written guideline of how a good literary work should be written. Among the many principles that they give us, the most important are: the rule of unity and simple, witty and understandable language and including the idea of punishment for vice and reward for virtue and the elements of either humor or pathos- the former for comedies, the latter for tragedies.
Although from time to time one or two of the figures say that the unity rule could be bent or made flexible, they all agree on one thing: the unity of the plot. This means that the literary work should have the main plot or a center story where the sub-plots are attached to. The main action should be stable, and the sub-events should be happening around the main action. This kind of unity allows the audience to follow the play more closely. We can see this very clearly in the play, where the main action is the departure of Anthony leaving Cleopatra behind. All the other actions are centered around this main action-for example the anger of Ventidius is the result of Anthony’s weak behavior caused by his love for Cleopatra; and Cleopatra’s relentless attempts in making Anthony staying, and Octavia’s noble attempt to gaining her husband back. These are all sub-twists that add up to the main event of the play: whether Anthony will leave Cleopatra or not and whether he will fight Caesar. The play also embodies the other principles of the rules of unity- time and place. The play takes place within 24 hours of time, and we see that the characters exit and enter the stage when their parts come. In this sense, the Rule of Unity is perfected in this play. Following, it seems that Dryden is trying to make a point: that although the plot is an imitation of a famous previously written play, it can be written in the perfect manner so that the audience is not lost and the work is well-received.
Regarding language, the play relates very much to the guideline provided: understandable, simple but also with metaphors that everyone can comprehend. Dryden puts an emphasis on the balance between form and content and says that a literary work should have short speeches, Johnson also advises the writers to use a language that the audience will not have to ‘solve’ and Pope says that a critic should be careful and clear in his language. The language of this play is particularly very interesting because, although the play is set in ancient times and relates a story that takes place in the golden age of the Roman Empire, the language is straightforward and convenient for understanding, whereby the audience can focus on the action and the feeling the play gives rather than trying to understand and make out what the characters have just said. In this sense, although written in the 17th century, the play is an excellent example of how the linguistics of a play should be- according to Dryden. An example of the simple metaphor used by the author would be Anthony’s lines in Act 1 Scene 1 where he is talking about his childhood and how he was raised and says; “Why I was raised the meteor of the world.” The phrase ‘meteor of the world’ is a figure of speech referring to the strength of Anthony and how he was raised. It is a simple metaphor where the audience understands his raining and moves on to listening to what he has to say. We do not have to stop and think about what he meant. Another example would be Cleopatra’s reference to Octavia in Act 3 Scene 1 after she has found out that Antony has left her and gone back to Octavia, she says; “When he grew weary of that household clog.” The phrase ‘household clog’ is imagery used to refer to something unpleasant- as what Cleopatra means when she uses the phrase to refer to Octavia. A ‘household clog’ is not a complicated thing and almost everyone has it in their homes, so it would not be challenging for the audience to understand what she means. Again, the audience does not struggle with finding meaning and concentrates on the stage where the action is taking place. In this sense, the play is an excellent example of how a tragedy should be written within the boundaries of Pope, Johnson, and Dryden.
The final elements that could be focused on – among the many points that relate to the guidelines of the three figures- is the inclusion of the element of pathos- where the audience feels pity for the characters; and the fact that the characters- despite their good and evil nature- are punished for their vice behavior and rewarded for their virtuous behavior. First, as an element of pathos, we can relate to almost all the characters in the play and feel sorry for them for what they are going through. We feel sorry for Ventidius who admires his captain and friend- Antony- so much that he is ready to die for him, which is also a noble act. We feel the pain of Antony when he is left in a conflict between his children and the love of his life, and we feel the anger, resentment and hurtful voice of Cleopatra when she begs and calls out for Antony to stay with her. We even felt a little bit of pity in the end for Alexas, who portrayed very immoral behavior that resulted in many deaths, when he begs to be forgiven. The fact that Octavia is beguiled by her husband and is left alone with her children makes our heart feel the sentiment for her. However, in the end, the sentiments we feel for the characters are replaced by the actual opinions of their characters and ends. This is an essential point in the play- that Dryden manages to use skillfully. He can include the emotion in the play, but also he turns this emotion into fair reasoning in the end, which shows his talent and genius as a writer. One final point that Dryden and Johnson both emphasize is the existence of morality in a literary work. Dryden says that vice should be punished and virtue should be rewarded; Johnson says that a play should aim to instruct the good and devalue the bad, that a play should embody the moral virtue where the evil is punished, and the good is rewarded. Although the punishments and rewards are not very clear for every character in the play, the characters that perform the main actions are punished and rewarded for their actions. Antony, for example, is rewarded for his act of turning back from adultery by the presence of his children and the forgiving nature of his wife. However, in the end, he is punished with the penalty of death because he once again leaves his wife for his mistress. Ventidius, the loyal general of Antony, is rewarded a noble death for being supportive, loyal and loving to his captain and friend. Alexas, after doing things without the knowledge of his Queen, is punished by the condemnation of his Queen right before she dies. And finally, Cleopatra is at first rewarded for her undying and loyal love for Antony where she is Queen and receives Antony for her own. But then she is punished for tearing apart a family for the sake of her selfish desire and she pays the punishment on many forms- the departure of Antony, the accusations of being unfaithful and finally death where she loses everything. Perhaps the only unfair punishment throughout the play is the punishment put on the Egyptians- where they lose a queen, land and even their honor to the Romans. Altogether, the play is an excellent example of the reinvigoration of drama and an excellent model to be taken as an imitation for other literary works. Dryden very clearly applies the rules he sets in his literary work titled An Essay on Dramatick Poesie. He sets the guidelines that go parallel with Johnson in A preface to Shakespeare and Pope’s An Essay on Criticism. The play sets an action in motion where the audience can understand and relate to the themes and plot. Because of this, the play has the element of universality – as emphasized by Johnson-.