Cleopatra

Cleopatra: A Sign of the Times by Diana Lerman "For Rome, who had never condescended to fear any nation or people, did in her time fear two human beings; one was Hannibal, and the other was a woman" (Lefkowitz 126). Abstract Cleopatra VII, the last reigning queen of Egypt, has intrigued us for centuries. Her story is one that has been told many times, and the many different and vastly varied representations of her and her story are solely based on the ways in which men and society have perceived women and their role in society throughout history. By looking at the perceptions of women starting from the Hellenes, the Greeks who greatly influenced Roman ideals, and following those perceptions through to the end of the 19th Century, it is easy to see how Cleopatra has been used to represent the "good woman." In other words, she has been used as a role model for women, to show what was their acceptable role in society and to shape their actions and beliefs into an acceptable form. The earliest writers saw her as an evil temptress, as attitudes changed she became a victim and now in recent representations she is seen as "a feminist hero and a savvy politician" (Nilsen 1). Following this history, one can see how the story of Cleopatra is a story that has been told many times to fit each time period's own allegiances. * * * The negative image of Cleopatra that has presided throughout history can be traced back to 5th Century Athens and their perceptions of women. During this time period the Greeks pit their own bourgeoisie ideal of femininity against their counterparts in "barbaric societies" (Nyquist 89). This barbarism was also associated with Orientalisms and therefore Egypt was considered barbaric. The barbarians and the Greeks were considered to be complete opposites and this could be seen in many ways. The barbarians ruled with a system of "monarchy" or "tyranny" and the Greeks were run by a democracy (Nyquist 88). "They were assigned systematically with ethical or psychological traits; avarice, cruelty, lawlessness, hierarchalism, luxuriousness, effeminacy, unrestrained emotionalism" associated with the barbarians, and, "moderation, judiciousness, lawfulness, equality, simplicity, manliness and reason" associated with the Greeks (Nyquist 88). The Greeks constructed female rule as barbaric to stigmatize the "other," to keep the female in their place and, most of all, to propagate white male rule. The Romans during Cleopatra's reign adopted these ideas of barbarism from the Greeks, and the negative image of Cleopatra was encouraged by the clash in Roman and Egyptian culture. In Egypt there was less differences between the rights of males and females, and the ability for females to have control over their lives was seen as scandalous in Rome. The "Romans did not subscribe to the…concept of tryphe, which included the demonstration of power through the display of luxury" (Hammer 5). This rejection, in combination with female power, made it so that Cleopatra's displays of herself missed their mark and the political force of her display was lost in the cultural difference (Hammer 18). After having been conquered, the various representations of Cleopatra are politically motivated. "The Romans who conquered her used her image as a sign of their own military and cultural superiority" (Hammer 4). The winner of a battle gets to tell the tale and Octavian's propagandists "depict Cleopatra as an atavistic, amoral Queen driven by a voracious sexuality and a ruthless lust for power" (Nyquist 96). A great emphasis was placed on sex and the differences between gender and how they should be marked and maintained was an issue. Foreign women like Cleopatra were threats to Octavian's authority and he "wanted to move away from the model of the powerful political woman-a model that nearly cost him his power" (Haley 26). Everything possible was done to mark Cleopatra as a woman, as evil and as incapable for rule. The reduction of female power remained important as history progressed and can be seen in Cassius Dio, the Roman historians', story of Cleopatra which is more propaganda than history. Retelling a speech that he believes Octavian may have said to his soldiers he writes: [w]e Romans are the rulers of the greatest and best parts of the world and yet we find ourselves spurned and trampled upon by a [woman] of Egypt…"(52). He continues with Roman propaganda retelling the great accomplishments of Roman forefathers and then stresses that "the men who have achieved these feats of arms…would be cut to the heart if ever they knew that we have been overcome by this pestilence of a [woman]…"(53). He verbally attacks the Egyptian culture and drives home his dislike of them and their barbarisms by saying "worst of all, they are not ruled by a man, but are the slaves of a [woman]" (53). In conclusion he writes: But, in the end, I cannot describe to you any greater prize that that of upholding the renown which your forefathers won, of preserving the proud tradition of your native lands, of punishing those who have rebelled against us, of conquering and ruling over all mankind, and [of allowing no woman to make herself equal to a man] (55). The dislike of women in positions of power and the absolute necessity to deprive them of this power can be seen in Dio's writing. Dio stresses Cleopatra's gender and makes it the supreme motivator for the ensuing war with Egypt by the marking the importance of conquering Cleopatra and removing her from her throne. Cleopatra's political power is further reduced in the history of early modern Europe. Support of patriarchy and the need to control women's place in society makes it essential to characterize Cleopatra in a negative manner in order to set an example for the women of the time period. Cleopatra is shown having all of the opposite qualities and/or virtues of a "good" Roman and European woman: modesty, propriety, chastity, obedience, wisdom, honor, virtue, beauty and motherhood. Faithful to the ideals of his time, Boccaccio depicts Cleopatra as being dominated by strong unwanted female characteristics like power through sexuality and self-confidence. Thus Cleopatra, having already acquired her kingdom through two crimes, gave herself to her pleasures. Having become almost the prostitute of Oriental kings and greedy for gold and jewels, she…stripped her lovers of these things with her art…" (Boccaccio 193) She is represented as barbarous by her "two crimes": incestuously marrying her brother and ruthlessly murdering him and by prostituting herself to Caesar to maintain her position on the throne. As a queen "she is driven by limitless desires for power, for wealth [and] for pleasure" (Nyquist 96-7) and she uses her lovers to gain them. Her role as a strong political and sexual woman is tainted with negativity and thus she becomes the classic tyrant. Most notably, because every aspect of her tyrannical rule is sexualized, the threat she poses is symbolized primarily as a threat to the accepted domestic and marital codes, which directly affect male privilege and power (Nyquist 97). "By fusing the xenophobia that fostered Roman national identity with patriarchal gender ideology, they demonized Cleopatra as Rome's most dangerous enemy, a foreigner and a woman ruler whose power was fatally inflected by her sexuality" (Kahn 111). This threat is neutralized by stressing her undesirable qualities by contrasting her to desirable ones thus stigmatizing any woman of that time period who might show any leanings toward them. The changes in Cleopatra's story can be traced to the changes in society's expectations of women. Historians in the 17th and 18th century in the form of playwrights based their writing on the "myth of female fragility" in a time period when women's role was to be weak and helpless (Hallet 161). Based on this ideal "good women are, or should at least appear to be, weak, and…those whose energy and talents prevent them from conforming to the ideal of feminine feebleness are of necessity, 'false'-wily, self-serving and unchaste" (Hallet 160). Shakespeare's play, Anthony and Cleopatra, radically domesticated Cleopatra in ways that are appropriate for this time period and her image of an evil, seductive Queen is replaced with an image that shows a little more sympathy toward her. Shakespeare depicts Cleopatra as a weak, willfully feminine creature that is needy and full of guile. Her female strength finds itself not in the desire to rule her people but in her desire to rule Anthony. She is presented first and foremost as a woman with the appropriate womanly desires. We see this as she busies herself keeping track of Antony's whereabouts saying, "[s]ee where he is, who's with him, what he does…" (I.3. 3-6), and using her time writing letters to her absent lover. She vows that Antony "shall have everyday a several greeting/ or I'll unpeople Egypt" (I.5.77-78) This "idle rhetorical threat merely reinforces that she is a woman of leisure whose central self-absorbic occupation is romantic love," an acceptable female occupation and characteristic (Nyquist 98). His play, although seemingly kinder to her memory, is in fact, still a strong representation of the patriarchal European perspective that is intended to reinforce the power of the male gender and demonstrate how dangerous it may be to allow a woman to be active in public affairs and politics. "Give me to drink mandragora/ That I might sleep out this great gap of time/ My Anthony is away." (I.5.3, 5-6) Cleopatra so hopelessly plays out her role as a love-struck female that she cannot even be a good queen. She is oblivious to the responsibilities of her throne and with her threat to "unpeople Egypt" (I.5.78) she shows a great indifference to the lives of her subjects. Cleopatra "never appears on stage on the office of ruler of her people, neither Romans nor Egyptians regard her as a political figure and she doesn't take herself seriously either" (Nyquist 97). The belief that women should remain outside of politics and be denied roles of power is easily seen and supported. Shakespeare makes sure to dramatize Cleopatra's "barbaric" lawlessness by associating her with every form of excess in the process of finding pleasure only for herself. He shows us her tyranny in her disregard for due process when at the news of Antony's marriage she verbally and physically abuses the messenger that brings her the news. Even her role as a mother is violated when the welfare of her children have no place in her thoughts. Finally, her death scene is careful to stress her "personal pride, classism and 'feminine' vanity' (Nyquist 101) by presenting her as a dutiful wife and following Antony faithfully to her death. Her last words, "[h]usband, I come!" (5.2.286) reinforce that what otherwise appears to be an honorable death with political motives is really just coincidental. Her real motive is to follow her husband to his grave in the appropriate and respectable womanly manner of the time-period. In the final scene of the play, Shakespeare has Cleopatra carried from her monument ande buried elsewhere with Antony, a defeated and disgraced Roman. She is not given the proper burial of a monarch in her own monument long prepared for that purpose. By doing this, Shakespeare has successfully denied Cleopatra of her power and any respect she might gain from her role as a powerful woman. Cleopatra exits history not as a public figure, but as Antony's lover. For purposes political and otherwise, people have been altering Cleopatra's image to suit their purposes. The biggest change in the representation of Cleopatra can be seen in the 19th Century when she becomes the "femme fatale" and escapes her former associations with tyranny and/or weakness (Hallet 181). The beginning of this alteration in the representation of Cleopatra can be seen in DeMille's film, Cleopatra, which was made in the 1930's. The film, for the first time in history, stages the character of Cleopatra as "elegant, self possessed and able to stand up for herself" (Hamer 120). Faithful to history, DeMille uses his film and his depiction of Cleopatra as propaganda to influence the public in the appropriate behavior and status of women in the 1930's. He bases Cleopatra's strong character on the new support of feminism and the "attempt to come to terms with the changing…status of women across the world" during the 1930's (Hamer 105). During this time the idea of separate sexes developed to restrict women's power was under challenge and no longer easily accepted. Because of this change in ideas, the figure of Cleopatra in whom "neither sexual drive, nor authority was in doubt" (Hamer 109), but in fact, securely visible, had a great force. Through the film, "a flattering recognition of women's economic and sexual independence" (Hamer 105) using the image of Cleopatra was made as women compared themselves to her. Most importantly, the actress playing Cleopatra, Claudette Colbert, represented perfectly "all that was tasteful and attractive" (Hamer 120) in female sexuality during the time. However DeMille manipulated his audience in the same way past historians have manipulated theirs. DeMille's film seems to support women's economic, sexual and political independence, but only really supports the first two. Economics and the new money that women could bring in by having their own money to buy new products encouraged the support of the first. The second was supported because of a modern fear that women were losing their sexual appetite all together. But even then, sexuality was harnessed by being "restricted to a heterosexual desire for the husband" (Hamer 121). DeMille was very thorough in making sure Cleopatra fit this role perfectly: she is looking for a husband and upon finding the person who fits this role (Caesar or Antony), she remains faithful to him. It is in the support of women's political independence that DeMille does the most of his manipulating. He manipulates them by depicting from the start that her political role is at odds with her 'natural' desires-- finding and maintaining a true love (Hamer 124). The introduction of Apollodorus the "mighty schoolmaster" and "philosopher" immediately undermines Cleopatra's role as a strong political woman in her own right. When she is kidnapped and exiled from Egypt all she can think is, "I've had no breakfast. I'm hungry!" showing her misunderstanding and lack of interest in the importance and danger of the situation that she and her country are in at the moment. Throughout the rest of the film Apollodorus is 'the brains behind Egypt,' the coordinator behind all of Cleopatra's political actions and accomplishments. By portraying Cleopatra as being an inept political leader, DeMille simply enforces that the (male) public in the 1930's really believes that woman should not be looking for power because their political roles are at odds with their "natural" womanly desire for love (Hamer 124). DeMille's film plays a great role in controlling how much and which parts of the feminist movement are actually condoned at that time. The most drastic change in the representation of Cleopatra has not come about until recently and can be seen in the ABC Television Special, Cleopatra, which was made in 1999, and is based on The Memoirs of Cleopatra, a novel written by Margaret George. George's' novel very clearly depicts Cleopatra as being "infinitely resourceful, a great politician, a great stateswoman…more beautiful and less sinister than her reputation" (Brennan 1). The novel strives for detail and accuracy, which are important for the medium of entertainment, a novel, to be successful. ABC's version also depicts Cleopatra in a positive way, she is not an evil tyrant as history has had her, instead she is a powerful, beautiful woman "alternately scheming, manipulative seductive, ruthless, fragile and tough" (Richmond 2). The ABC version of Cleopatra stresses that it is acceptable for a woman to contain all of these traits, even at the same time. We see the greatest change in the depiction of Cleopatra when she is shown as a political figure that is highly interested in her past, her peoples past, her throne, and her country's present and future. In order to maintain power she makes difficult political moves, like giving up her virginity to the man who will allow her to keep her throne, only for the purpose of keeping it. This tactical move is carried out confidently and successfully. After she is rolled out of the rug at Caesar's feet he tells her that she should go to bed. "Where'" she asks seductively, and soon after she makes her purpose clear by saying, "I am Egypt, and Egypt is yours-for one night only." In this way we see that she is in control, and that it is okay for her to be playing hardball in politics. Cleopatra's strength as a ruler and love of her people is best seen when, against the advice of her advisors, she refuses to give grain that her country owes to Rome to the Romans. Looking around her she sees that her own people are starving and going without. In a gutsy and appropriate move for a ruler she opens up the granaries to her people, and 9 months pregnant, distributes grain to all that may want it or need it. And as George says and shows in her writing, "however passionate she [is], Cleopatra's goal [is] always to keep her country independent" (Brennan 3). She is a good mother, a good leader, and a good lover thus containing all of the qualities that are held in esteem during this time period. However, the filming and casting of the movie is what really tells us about the status of women, and the interest that they have for men today in the 1999's. The 1990's are time where 'sex sells' and this can be seen in the sexual nature of advertising and propaganda that bombards the population everyday. Sex is what interests people. It gets their attention, and the producers at ABC kept this in mind when they filmed Cleopatra. In order to grab the attention of the viewers the movie is filmed like a good soap opera, the watching of which is a favorite American past time. The movie is "simply a lusty treat from start to finish" (Richmond 1). After so many books and movies about Cleopatra, the movie producers had to come up with something that would grab the attention of the public. And to do this they cast Leonor Varela in the role of Cleopatra. Varela, "who is bewitching and exotic and sensuous in all the right proportions…[and faithful to men's sexual interest in women] all her proportions, in fact, appear to be in al the right proportions" (Shales 1). The importance of Varela's looks are best described by Shale who writes "there is a school of thought that holds that Cleopatra was plumpy and dumpy; does anybody want to see that film'" Aside from her incredibly good looks Varela is completely wrong for the part: she is Chilean (without having lost her accent) and does not appear to be regal in any form. Varela, playing Cleopatra, is essential to the success of the film and Cleopatra's sexuality (one she is no longer condoned for) is highly stressed. Peoples interest in sex, (women included now!), are catered to with slow motion "I-want-to-rip-off-your-clothes-and-ravage-you-forever" (Richmond 1) quality love scenes. The movie seems to play out like "soft-core porn without the porn" (Shale 2). 'Cleopatra' uses her sexuality to manipulate, to trick, and to please, seemingly reversing into her early role in history as an evil temptress and seductress. The only difference is that the role, which she has been condemned and remembered for on the past, is now, accepted. Perhaps, without it she would fade into history. "History has always mixed itself with politics and advertising, and in all three the best stories carries the day" (Holland 64). Historians have always know this and used it to their advantage. They have manipulated facts and invented lies in order to prove a point, in order to represent the view of and defend their allegiances. The story of Cleopatra, perhaps more than any other, has seen the truth in historian's lies. Her character has been manipulated, greatly varied in every changing time period since her death, and continues to be altered every day. One may ask, "Why did Octavian work so hard to ruin her reputation'" The answer may be that she was more formidable than any of these surviving interpretations tell (Holland 64). However, one fact remains; the interpretations of Cleopatra's character are reflections of the status quo. They have been, until recently, male oriented, about men and describing male attitudes toward women. Even today they are still a reflection of the accepted norm and the role of the female gender in our society; what is accepted, and what is expected of us. Only when the story of Cleopatra is lost to history, when the mention of her name does not immediately muster up assumptions of her character, when she is a vague figure of the past, only then will we know that there is equality in the genders. Work Cited Boccaccio, Giovanni. Concerning Famous Women [1335, De Claris Mulieribus].Trans. Guido Guarino. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 1963. Brennan, Patricia. "The Book on the Egyptian Queen." The Washington Post, 32 May 1999, ppy 07. Cleopatra. Director DeMille, Prod. Claudette Colbert.________' Cleopatra. Prod. Robert Holmes Sr. with Leonor Varela, Timothy Dalton, and Billy Zane. ABC, 1999. Dio, Cassuis. The Roman History: The Reign of Augustus [c. 200 C.E.]. Trans. Ian Scott Kilvert. New York: Penguin, 1988. Hamer, Mary. Signs of Cleopatra. New York: Routledge, 1993. Holland, Barbara. "Cleopatra: What Kind of a Woman Was She Anyway'" Smithsonian, Feb 1997; vol. 27, Iss. 11, pg. 56+. Hughes-Hallet, Lucy. Cleopatra: Histories, Dreams and Distortions. London: Harper & Row 1990. Kahn, Coppélia. Roman Shakespeare: Warriors, Wounds, and Women. London: Routledge, 1997. Lefkowitz, Marry R. and Maureen B. Fant. Women in Greece and Rome. Toronto: Samuel-Stevens, 1977. Nyquist, Mary. "Profuse, Proud Cleopatra: "Barbarism" and Female Rule in Early Modern English Republicanism." Women's Studies [Great Britain], 1995, 24 (1-2) 85-30. Richmond, Ray. "Cleopatra". Variety. 05-17-1999, v375i1 p.40. Shakespeare, William. Anthony and Cleopatra [1608]. Ed. Michael Meill. Oxford UP, 1994. Shales, Tom. "Cleopatra; ABC's Jewel of the Nile; New Comer Varela Gives Miniseries a Regal Touch." The Washington Post, 05-23-1999, pp G01.