Various Perspectives About Cleopatra in Historical Meta-narratives

Antony & Cleopatra is a well-known tragic story across the world. It has a great part in the historical culture. All people know the famous couple who loved each other, fought the Romans and ended their story by their suicide. The story is presented by 3 of the most prominent writers in their eras which are Plutarch, Shakespeare, and Dryden. The historical narrative starts by Plutarch and what Shakespeare and Dryden introduce after that is the meta-narratives. However, the 3 narratives have discrepancies which reflect the different perspectives of each of them and what purpose they want to deliver to the audience. Accordingly, the image of the character of Cleopatra differs among the 3 works and provides several points of view affected also by the use of language as it will be dealt with in this essay.

Plutarch in The Life of Marcus Antonius displays Cleopatra from an orientalist view. He sees that Cleopatra is the main reason for the fall of Antony. She is a manipulative witch who creates an atmosphere around her that makes men fall in love with her like what she did with Pompey, Julius Caesar, and Antony. He describes the atmosphere when Antony meets Cleopatra saying:

“She came sailing up the river Cydnus, in a barge with gilded stern and outspread sails of purple, while oars of silver beat time to the music of flutes and fifes and harps. She herself lay all along, under a canopy of cloth of gold, dressed as Venus in a picture, and beautiful young boys, like painted Cupids, stood on each side to fan her. Her maids were dressed like Sea Nymphs and Graces, some steering at the rudder, some working at the ropes. The perfumes diffused themselves from the vessel to the shore, which was covered with multitudes . . .” (Plutarch).

Through the story, Plutarch does not consider Cleopatra very beautiful, yet he sees her as a woman who charms men like Antony for her own interests to gain control and power. From his description of the moment, he highlights the decadence of Cleopatra and her ways to get what she wants directing the audience's thinking that she is like a prostitute. He does not even admit their love relationship, and he refers to it as a trick and damage saying:

“The last and crowning mischief that could befall him came in the love of Cleopatra, to awaken and kindle to fury passions that as yet lay still and dormant in his nature, and to stifle and finally corrupt any elements that yet made resistance in him, of goodness and a sound judgment. He fell into the snare thus . . .” (Plutarch).

The way Plutarch tackles the story is a stereotyping of self and other like the stereotype of the East and West. He blames Cleopatra who represents the Eastern side of the world for affecting Antony, the representative of the West, to be able to decide and manipulating him against Rome. He is kind of attacking her since she placed Egypt on equal footing with Rome in addition to declaring herself as a fierce rival to the West, not to mention her ability to get two of the great Roman rulers to fall in love with her. Nevertheless, it seems that the situation was reversed. At first, Antony wanted to deal with Cleopatra to benefit from her and her country adding them to the Roman Empire, but he did not know that he will be swept off his feet by her love.

On the other hand, Shakespeare's meta-narrative of Cleopatra is unlike what Plutarch introduced. He was objective by presenting the opinion of the Romans in Cleopatra and how was Cleo as a feminine leader who exploits everything to her personal interests. He filled some gaps in Plutarch's narrative which gave a different perspective of the characterization in the story, yet some other gaps were left as they are. His focus was on the historical moments that left a great impact in history through language and characters like Cleo. In the opening of the play, it begins with one of Antony's men saying:

Nay, but this dotage of our general’s O’erflows the measure. Those his goodly eyes, That o’er the files and musters of the war Have glowed like plated Mars, now bend, now turn The office and devotion of their view Upon a tawny front. His captain’s heart, Which in the scuffles of great fights hath burst The buckles on his breast, reneges all temper And is become the bellows and the fan To cool a gypsy’s lust. 

Cleopatra, at the beginning of the play, is described as a gypsy and treated the same way Plutarch treated her. However, Shakespeare ended his play by Cleopatra's catching monologue displaying the pride of Egypt's Queen preserving her dignity and honor and giving her the voice to express herself, unlike Plutarch who judged and attacked her and never gave her the chance to speak. She said:

Sir, I will eat no meat, I’ll not drink, sir. If idle talk will once be necessary, I’ll not sleep neither. This mortal house I’ll ruin, Do Caesar what he can. Know, sir, that I Will not wait pinioned at your master’s court, Nor once be chastised with the sober eye Of dull Octavia. Shall they hoist me up And show me to the shouting varletry Of censuring Rome? Rather a ditch in Egypt Be gentle grave unto me. Rather on Nilus’ mud Lay me stark naked and let the waterflies Blow me into abhorring. Rather make My country’s high pyramides my gibbet And hang me up in chains! . . . (Shakespeare).

Shakespeare balanced the comparative view of self and other (East & West) even though he is a western man. He did not get biased and highlighted the capabilities of the political intelligence of a queen in a world of kings. Many critics saw that Shakespeare is a feminist who calls for gender equality although he lived in an era which women must be submissive to their men. They proved this in his way of introducing Cleopatra and his focus on her death at the end of the play rather than the end of Cleopatra's reign over Egypt and taking it by Rome. One of them called Carol Cook said in the book of Shakespearean Tragedy and Gender Shakespeare's play is not about 'what can be possessed and governed but what can be imagined and articulated. Cleopatra plays with gender, not in order to overcome social or familial obstacles but to transform conventional definitions, roles and boundaries'.

Nevertheless, the meta-narrative of Dryden tackled a totally different side. He concentrated on delivering morals to the readers through his play All for love. He did not change anything in the story and he even eliminated the element of suspense in his preface to deliver the message he wanted before reading the rest of the play which was calling for logic over passion. According to his background, he was a Puritan, and he lived in the age of reason which saw reason before emotions. He described the relationship between Cleopatra and Antony as unlawful love. Passion was the flaw that affected the ability to serve duties well and lead to the logical tragic end which was suicide. He said in the preface related to what is previously mentioned: 'The crimes of love which they both committed were not occasioned by any necessity or fatal ignorance, but were wholly voluntary, since our passions are, or ought to be, within our power.' In addition, Dryden kept glorifying himself through the play by playing all the roles as the narrator, the commentator, and the critic. In the prologue, he stated: ' What flocks of critics hover here to-day, As vultures wait for their prey . . .'. He criticized himself in order not to let anyone attack him as if they were waiting for him as their prey to commit a mistake. Some critics claimed that ' All for love is marred by a confusion between what Dryden intended and what he achieved'. They suggest that the play does not picture criminal love for voluntary transgression. 'Instead, it gives us almost the opposite: a love that is inevitable, an uncontrollable force; and the lovers vindicated because of their passion. Our sympathies are drawn to the lovers and held there because their passions are not within their power. At least from the point of view Dryden builded better than he knew'. Thus, there is a spilt between intention and achievement.

Furthermore, other critics like Stacy Schiff looked on the character of Cleopatra from a dissimilar standpoint. She wrote ' she controlled virtually the entire eastern Mediterranean coast, the last great kingdom of any Egyptian ruler. For a fleeting moment she held the fate of the Western world in her hands.' and ' the sole female of the ancient world to rule alone and to play a role in Western affairs '. She added also that instead of the stereotypes of the 'whore queen', she portrayed her as 'a fiery wisp of girl' who grows up to be a very clever politician. She was not such a beauty, but she was charismatic, capable, smart, and highly competent. She was the ruler seen by many of her subjects as a 'beneficent guardian' with good intentions and a 'commitment to justice'. She died a dignified death and she was still proud and unbroken until the end. Ms. Schiff observes: ' by the Roman definition she had at last done something right; finally it was to her credit that she had defied the expectations of her sex'.

In a nutshell, the character of Cleopatra was handled in various ways. Nonetheless, the ultimate truth about how she was is unknown. Perhaps, she was a serpent like how Plutarch described her, or she was a prideful queen like how Shakespeare depicted her persona, or she represents both of the two images. In any case, the admitted truth is that there was an Egyptian woman called Cleopatra who turned the world upside down at her times leaving an unforgettable impact in history.

Works Cited

• Cameron, Robin. “ Antony and Cleopatra – A Woman in Control.” Antony and Cleopatra: Critical History, www2.cedarcrest.edu/academic/eng/lfletcher/ac/rcameron.html.
• “Antony and Cleopatra.” Translated by Maria Devlin, LitCharts, www.litcharts.com/shakescleare/shakespeare-translations/antony-and-cleopatra/act-1-scene-1.
•  “Antony and Cleopatra.” Translated by Maria Devlin, LitCharts, www.litcharts.com/shakescleare/shakespeare-translations/antony-and-cleopatra/act-5-scene-2.
• Dryden, John. All for Love. Gary R. Young, 1999.
• Kakutani, Michiko. “The Woman Who Had the World Enthralled.” Nytimes, 1 Nov. 2010, www.nytimes.com/2010/11/02/books/02book.html.
• King, Bruce. “Dryden's Intent in All for Love.” College English, National Council of Teachers of English, 1 Jan. 1963, www.jstor.org/stable/373612?seq=2#metadata_info_tab_contents.
• “Marcus Antonius.” Edited by David Trumball and Patrick McNamara, Plutarch's Life of Antony, 2005, www.bostonleadershipbuilders.com/plutarch/antony.htm.
• “Plutarch's View Of The Relationship Between Anthony And Cleopatra.” Plutarch's View Of The Relationship Between Anthony And Cleopatra - Essay - 1210 Words - AVSAB Online, www.avsabonline.org/papers/plutarch-s-view-of-the-relationship-between-anthony-and-cleopatra.