In the course of ‘Antony and Cleopatra’, Shakespeare examines all of the characters through their various emotions, and several in the different circumstances they are thrust into, giving the audience a unique, contemporary view of the Rulers of the Roman Empire at the time.
When the audience is told of how Cleopatra was first introduced to the Romans, through Enobarbus’s speech (2:2), she is described as having “cloth-of-gold” and having “delicate cheeks”. This long description of Cleopatra recounts how all of Alexandria flocked to the sea to gaze upon her, and how the wind itself would have gone had it not “made a gap in nature”. The presence of Cleopatra, being able to draw hundreds to her by merely turning up on a barge, is obviously (as Plutarch described) “irresistible”. She is also politically cunning, shown when she bargained with Caesar, asking for the Ptolomy namesake to be preserved within Egypt. This level of thought, whilst under extreme duress from Caesar to betray......
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Approximate Word Count: 1971
Approximate Pages: 8 (260 words per double-spaced page) |