# Octavia — Antony and Cleopatra character guide

> Octavia in Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Antony Octavia, dull Octavia, Patient Octavia, Kisses Octavia

**First appearance:** 0017-act-iii-scene-ii

## Snapshot

Caesar's admired sister, offered to Antony as a bride to seal a fragile peace, a woman whose virtue becomes a pawn in men's political arithmetic.

## Who they are

Agrippa proposes Octavia as the knot that might bind Antony and Caesar together, and she enters the play as the living emblem of that hope: beautiful, virtuous, and universally praised. Her marriage to Antony is meant to convert rivalry into brotherhood, but it places her between two men whose ambitions will not stay still. Her patient dignity makes her the quiet moral counterweight to Cleopatra's theatrical passion, and her fate measures the cost of the world's great bargains.

## Relationships

### [Mark Antony](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/antony_and_cleopatra_se/characters/mark_antony)

_family_

Octavia is Antony's wife (sister of Octavius), a political marriage that fails due to Antony's obsession with Cleopatra.

### [Agrippa](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/antony_and_cleopatra_se/characters/agrippa)

_friendship_

Agrippa is a loyal supporter of Octavius and thus allied with Octavia, his sister, in the political struggle.

### [Mark Antony](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/antony_and_cleopatra_se/characters/mark_antony)

_family_

Octavia is Antony's wife (sister of Octavius), a political marriage that fails due to Antony's obsession with Cleopatra.

### [Agrippa](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/antony_and_cleopatra_se/characters/agrippa)

_friendship_

Agrippa is a loyal supporter of Octavius and thus allied with Octavia, his sister, in the political struggle.

## In the story

### [Scene III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/antony_and_cleopatra_se/chapters/act-ii-scene-iii)

Octavia parts from Antony with a promise to pray for him, embodying duty and devotion.

### [Scene II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/antony_and_cleopatra_se/chapters/act-iii-scene-ii)

Weeps at parting from Rome and her brother, showing emotional distress.

### [Scene IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/antony_and_cleopatra_se/chapters/act-iii-scene-iv)

Pleads for peace between her husband and brother, caught in the conflict.

### [Scene VI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/antony_and_cleopatra_se/chapters/act-iii-scene-vi)

Octavia returns to Rome on her own free will after hearing of Caesar's war preparations. She laments being torn between Antony and Caesar.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/antony_and_cleopatra_se/characters/octavia
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/antony_and_cleopatra_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/antony_and_cleopatra_se/characters