Antony and Cleopatra is the prescribed Shakespearean text for WAEC and NECO Literature-in-English from 2026 to 2030, and examiners test it through objective context questions. In the examination, you will meet short extracts from the play and answer questions on theme, characterisation, style and setting. Therefore, this study guide shows you what to revise and how to answer. In addition, it gives you 30 practice questions with an answer key.

How Antony and Cleopatra Is Examined in WAEC and NECO

WAEC lists Antony and Cleopatra as the Shakespearean text in its harmonised Literature-in-English list for 2026 to 2030, and NECO uses the same list. However, in the last published WAEC exam scheme, the Shakespearean text appears only in the objective paper. The key points are below.

• First, Paper 1 is an objective test of 50 multiple-choice questions, and it lasts 1 hour.
• Second, about 20 of these questions are context questions on the Shakespearean text.
• In particular, the context questions test theme, characterisation, style and setting.
• Importantly, no essay question is set on the Shakespearean text.
• Meanwhile, prose, drama and poetry are tested in the other papers.

Exam details can change, so confirm the current scheme with your school or on the WAEC and NECO websites. Meanwhile, you can check the official WAEC harmonised text list (PDF) yourself.

What the Context Questions Test

First, a context question gives you a short extract from the play. Then it asks who is speaking, who is being addressed, what the situation is, what a word or phrase means, or which device the writer uses. Therefore, you must know the play well enough to place any extract. Revise these four areas.

• Theme: love and duty, Rome and Egypt, power, honour, loyalty and death. Revise the themes page.
• Characterisation: traits, relationships and the reasons behind each action. Revise the characters page.
• Style: language, imagery, tone and literary devices, which are covered below.
• Setting: time, place and mood. Revise the setting page.

Quick Revision Summary by Act

• In Act 1, Antony enjoys life in Egypt with Cleopatra. News of Fulvia’s death and Pompey’s strength calls him back to Rome. (Full Act 1 notes)
• During Act 2, in Rome, Antony and Caesar make peace, and Antony marries Octavia. Meanwhile, the triumvirs agree a truce with Pompey. (Full Act 2 notes)
• Throughout Act 3, Caesar breaks the peace, and Antony returns to Cleopatra. The lovers then lose the battle of Actium. (Full Act 3 notes)
• Within Act 4, Enobarbus deserts and dies of guilt. After a false report of Cleopatra’s death, Antony dies in her arms. (Full Act 4 notes)
• By Act 5, Caesar captures Cleopatra. Rather than walk in his triumph, she kills herself with an asp, and her women die with her. (Full Act 5 notes)

Character Quick Facts

• Mark Antony: a brave Roman general and triumvir. His passion for Cleopatra ruins him.
• Cleopatra: the proud, changeable queen of Egypt. She chooses death over capture.
• Octavius Caesar: a cold, clever triumvir. He wins the empire.
• Enobarbus: Antony’s blunt, honest friend. He deserts Antony and dies of shame.
• Octavia: Caesar’s sister and Antony’s political wife.
• Lepidus: the weakest triumvir. Caesar imprisons him.
• Pompey: the rebel who receives Sicily and Sardinia. He refuses to murder his guests.
• Charmian and Iras: Cleopatra’s loyal attendants. They die beside her.
• Eros: Antony’s servant. He kills himself rather than kill his master.

Theme Quick Facts

• Love vs duty: Antony follows Cleopatra’s ships at Actium and abandons the battle.
• Rome vs Egypt: Rome stands for discipline and politics, while Egypt stands for passion and pleasure.
• Power and politics: Caesar breaks the truce with Pompey and imprisons Lepidus.
• Honour and loyalty: Pompey refuses treachery, and Eros and Enobarbus test the meaning of faith.
• Death: Cleopatra turns her death into a victory over Caesar.

Style and Literary Devices in the Play

Because WAEC and NECO often ask which device an extract uses, learn the devices below with their examples from the play.

• Blank verse: most of the play is written in unrhymed lines of ten syllables.
• Imagery: Egypt is linked with the Nile, gold, fire and air, while Rome is linked with plain speech and order.
• Hyperbole: “Let Rome in Tiber melt” and “Eternity was in our lips and eyes” are deliberate exaggerations.
• Simile: “like a burnished throne” in Enobarbus’s barge speech compares the barge to a throne.
• Soliloquy: a character speaks private thoughts aloud while alone on stage.
• Dramatic irony: the audience knows Cleopatra is alive while Antony believes she is dead.
• Foreshadowing: the soothsayer says Charmian will outlive her mistress.
• Tone and mood: playful and passionate in Egypt, tense and calculating in Rome, and solemn in the last act.

Setting Quick Facts

• Time: about 40 BC to 30 BC, after Julius Caesar’s murder.
• Opening scene: Cleopatra’s palace in Alexandria.
• Main places: Alexandria and Rome, with scenes in Messina, Misenum, Athens, Syria and the sea near Actium.
• Final scene: Cleopatra’s monument in Alexandria.

How to Answer Context Questions

• First, read the extract twice before you look at the options.
• Next, find the speaker and the person being addressed, because the names often appear in the lines around the extract.
• Then work out the situation by asking what has just happened in the play.
• After that, check the tone, since the speaker may be angry, loving, ashamed or proud.
• Finally, cross out options that clearly do not fit, and then choose between the rest.
• For device questions, also match the exact words to the definition and not just the general feeling.

30 Practice Context Questions (WAEC and NECO Style)

First, answer all 30 questions without looking at your notes. Then check your work against the answer key below.

Part A: Plot and Rulers (Questions 1 to 5)

1. Which of the following correctly names the three rulers of the Roman world in the play?
   (A) Antony, Caesar and Pompey
   (B) Antony, Octavius Caesar and Lepidus
   (C) Caesar, Lepidus and Pompey
   (D) Antony, Lepidus and Enobarbus
2. Whose death is reported to Antony in Act 1?
   (A) Octavia’s
   (B) Charmian’s
   (C) Fulvia’s
   (D) Iras’s
3. Antony marries Octavia mainly to
   (A) seal the peace between himself and Caesar
   (B) gain control of Egypt
   (C) punish Cleopatra
   (D) win Pompey’s support
4. Which rebel is given Sicily and Sardinia in the truce?
   (A) Lepidus
   (B) Menas
   (C) Ventidius
   (D) Pompey
5. Pompey rejects Menas’s offer to murder the triumvirs because
   (A) he fears Antony’s soldiers
   (B) honour will not let him win by treachery
   (C) Caesar has paid him
   (D) the ship has no crew

Part A: Actium and Deaths (Questions 6 to 10)

6. Antony loses the battle of Actium mainly because
   (A) Caesar’s army is larger
   (B) Enobarbus betrays the fleet
   (C) Cleopatra’s ships flee and Antony follows them
   (D) a storm scatters the ships
7. The character who deserts Antony and later dies of guilt is
   (A) Enobarbus
   (B) Eros
   (C) Scarus
   (D) Agrippa
8. Eros kills himself because he
   (A) fears Caesar
   (B) believes Cleopatra is dead
   (C) is wounded in battle
   (D) cannot bring himself to kill Antony
9. Antony stabs himself after he hears that
   (A) Caesar has captured Alexandria
   (B) Cleopatra has died (a false report)
   (C) Enobarbus has died
   (D) Octavia has left him
10. Cleopatra ends her life with
    (A) a poisoned cup
    (B) a dagger
    (C) an asp hidden in a basket of figs
    (D) a sword

Part B: Early Extracts (Questions 11 to 15)

11. “Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide arch / Of the ranged empire fall!” Antony means that
    (A) his love for Cleopatra matters more to him than the empire
    (B) Rome should be destroyed
    (C) he wants to return to Rome
    (D) Caesar must be defeated
12. “The triple pillar of the world transformed / Into a strumpet’s fool.” Who speaks, and about whom?
    (A) Demetrius, about Caesar
    (B) Enobarbus, about Pompey
    (C) Charmian, about Cleopatra
    (D) Philo, about Antony
13. “Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale / Her infinite variety.” Enobarbus praises Cleopatra for
    (A) her wealth
    (B) her constant power to surprise and charm
    (C) her youth
    (D) her loyalty
14. Antony says “I have fled myself” after
    (A) Pompey’s feast
    (B) his marriage to Octavia
    (C) the flight from the battle of Actium
    (D) the death of Enobarbus
15. “I am alone the villain of the earth.” Enobarbus says this when he
    (A) receives the treasure Antony sends after him
    (B) hears of Antony’s death
    (C) meets Cleopatra
    (D) joins Pompey

Part B: Later Extracts (Questions 16 to 20)

16. “Not Caesar’s valour hath o’erthrown Antony, / But Antony’s hath triumphed on itself.” Antony means that
    (A) Caesar is a brave man
    (B) Cleopatra defeated Caesar
    (C) Caesar won by cheating
    (D) he has been ruined by his own actions, not by Caesar
17. Antony says “I am dying, Egypt, dying” in
    (A) Caesar’s camp
    (B) Cleopatra’s monument
    (C) Rome
    (D) a ship at Actium
18. “Give me my robe, put on my crown; I have / Immortal longings in me.” Cleopatra says this as she
    (A) celebrates a victory
    (B) prepares to meet Caesar
    (C) prepares to die as a queen
    (D) plans to escape
19. In “I am fire and air; my other elements / I give to baser life”, the “other elements” are
    (A) earth and water
    (B) wind and rain
    (C) gold and silver
    (D) her women
20. “No grave upon the earth shall clip in it / A pair so famous.” Caesar says this when he
    (A) refuses Antony a burial
    (B) mourns Enobarbus
    (C) praises Octavia
    (D) orders that Antony and Cleopatra be buried together

Part C: Theme and Devices (Questions 21 to 25)

21. The clash between Rome and Egypt in the play mainly represents the conflict between
    (A) youth and age
    (B) wealth and poverty
    (C) duty and discipline against passion and pleasure
    (D) war and peace
22. A speech in which a character speaks thoughts aloud while alone on stage is a
    (A) prologue
    (B) soliloquy
    (C) epilogue
    (D) dialogue
23. The device in “The barge she sat in, like a burnished throne” is
    (A) irony
    (B) personification
    (C) oxymoron
    (D) simile
24. “Eternity was in our lips and eyes” is an example of
    (A) hyperbole
    (B) litotes
    (C) euphemism
    (D) pun
25. The audience knows Cleopatra is alive while Antony believes she is dead. This is an example of
    (A) soliloquy
    (B) flashback
    (C) dramatic irony
    (D) aside

Part C: Style, Tragedy and Setting (Questions 26 to 30)

26. In Act 1, a soothsayer predicts that Charmian will outlive her mistress, and this prediction is an example of
    (A) flashback
    (B) foreshadowing
    (C) climax
    (D) apostrophe
27. Shakespeare writes most of the play in
    (A) prose
    (B) free verse
    (C) rhyming couplets
    (D) blank verse
28. Antony’s tragic flaw is best described as
    (A) uncontrolled passion for Cleopatra
    (B) cowardice
    (C) greed for money
    (D) envy of Caesar
29. Antony and Cleopatra is best described as a
    (A) comedy
    (B) farce
    (C) tragedy
    (D) masque
30. The play opens in
    (A) Rome
    (B) Alexandria
    (C) Athens
    (D) Messina

Answer Key with Explanations

Answers to Part A: Plot and Character (1 to 10)

• 1. B: The three triumvirs are Antony, Octavius Caesar and Lepidus.
• 2. C: Fulvia, Antony’s wife, dies, so her death helps to call him back to Rome.
• 3. A: The marriage is a political tool, so it binds Antony and Caesar together.
• 4. D: Pompey receives Sicily and Sardinia when the triumvirs make peace with him.
• 5. B: Pompey values honour, but he says Menas should have done the deed without telling him.
• 6. C: Antony abandons the fight to follow Cleopatra, so his fleet and army are lost.
• 7. A: Enobarbus joins Caesar, but Antony’s kindness fills him with shame.
• 8. D: Eros chooses loyalty over obedience and dies instead of striking his master.
• 9. B: Cleopatra sends the false news of her death, so Antony wants to join her.
• 10. C: A countryman brings the asp in a basket of figs.

Answers to Part B: Extracts and Context (11 to 20)

• 11. A: The line (Act 1, Scene 1) shows that Antony values his love above the empire.
• 12. D: Philo opens the play with a Roman complaint against Antony.
• 13. B: He means that she never becomes dull, although one may know her well.
• 14. C: Because he ran from the battle, he feels he has betrayed his own honour (Act 3, Scene 11).
• 15. A: Antony’s kindness makes Enobarbus feel worse, because he has deserted his master (Act 4, Scene 6).
• 16. D: Antony takes the blame for his own fall (Act 4, Scene 15).
• 17. B: He dies in Cleopatra’s arms in the monument (Act 4, Scene 15).
• 18. C: She dresses as a queen before she takes the asp (Act 5, Scene 2).
• 19. A: The four elements were earth, air, fire and water, so the remaining two are earth and water.
• 20. D: Caesar admires the lovers, so he honours them at the end of the play.

Answers to Part C: Theme, Style and Setting (21 to 30)

• 21. C: Rome stands for duty and discipline, while Egypt stands for passion and pleasure.
• 22. B: This is the definition of a soliloquy.
• 23. D: Because the word “like” is used, the device is a simile.
• 24. A: It is a deliberate exaggeration, so it is hyperbole.
• 25. C: The audience knows more than the character does, so the irony is dramatic.
• 26. B: It hints at the ending, so it foreshadows the close of the play.
• 27. D: Shakespeare mainly uses unrhymed ten-syllable lines, which are called blank verse.
• 28. A: His passion makes him neglect his duty, and as a result he loses his judgment.
• 29. C: The two main characters fall from power, and finally they die.
• 30. B: The first scene takes place in Cleopatra’s palace in Alexandria.

Score Yourself

• 25 to 30: excellent, so keep revising the quotes and devices.
• 18 to 24: good, but revisit the acts where you lost marks.
• Below 18: read the plot summary and the act notes again, and then retake the test.

Essay Practice for School and University Tests

WAEC and NECO do not set essay questions on this text. However, many schools and universities do, so these two questions are useful extra practice.

• Question: Discuss the conflict between love and duty in Antony and Cleopatra. Plan: start with Antony’s “Let Rome in Tiber melt” speech, then cover the marriage to Octavia, Actium and the two deaths.
• Question: Show how Shakespeare presents Cleopatra as both a lover and a queen. Plan: start with her teasing and jealousy, then cover her monument and the choice she makes in Act 5.

Last-Minute Checklist

• First, know the order of events from Act 1 to Act 5.
• Next, match each main character to one trait and one key action.
• Then learn ten short quotes and place each one in its act.
• Also revise the devices in the style section with one example each.
• Finally, practise the 30 questions again two days before the exam.

Continue Reading

• Plot Summary of Antony and Cleopatra
• Famous Quotes and Meanings from Antony and Cleopatra
• Structure of Antony and Cleopatra
• Background of the Play and Background of the Playwright