Cleopatra (Shakespeare)
Lists
2 votes
Fictional Characters starting with C
(99 items)list by alison15
Published 1 month, 1 week ago
View all Cleopatra (Shakespeare) lists
Pictures
View all Cleopatra (Shakespeare) pictures
Whether whispering sweet words of love to Antony or railing at a supposedly disloyal servant, Cleopatra leaves her onlookers breathless. As Antony notes, she is a woman “[w]hom everything becomes—to chide, to laugh / To weep” (I.i.51–52). It is this ability to be the perfect embodiment of all things—beauty and ugliness, virtue and vice—that Cleopatra stands to lose after her defeat by Caesar. By parading her through the streets of Rome as his trophy, he intends to reduce her character to a single, base element—to immortalize her as a whore. If Antony cannot allow his conception of self to expand to incorporate his defeats, then Cleopatra cannot allow hers to be stripped to the image of a boy actor “squeaking Cleopatra . . . / I’th’ posture of a whore” (V.ii.216–217). Cleopatra often behaves childishly and with relentless self-absorption; nevertheless, her charisma, strength, and indomitable will make her one of Shakespeare’s strongest, most awe-inspiring female characters.
Your Rating:
Tags:
My tags:
Add tags
Update feed
alison15 added this to a list 1 month, 1 week ago
Fictional Characters starting with C (99 characters items)
Pacifista O rated this 7/10 1 year ago
Pacifista O posted 2 images 1 year, 1 month ago