Thesis
Shakespeare authenticating Cleopatra
Washington State University
Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
2015
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/102866
Abstract
Much like Shakespeare, the real Cleopatra we know little about. As her story has been retold over the past two thousand years she has developed as a distinct character in everyone’s mind. Shakespeare’s Cleopatra is perhaps the reason her name and character have become so famous, despite how different every version may seem from what we know about the original. I argue that Shakespeare creates a Cleopatra that relies on her ability to flawlessly perform; and that this performance is, as Enobarbus describes it an “infinite variety” that fluctuates and morphs between gender expectations and stereotypes. For this reason she remains possibly the most ambiguous title character that Shakespeare writes. Cleopatra is conflicted between power and her love for Antony, and ultimately it may be this struggle that results in Antony’s death. Whatever the details of her interiority are, the audience never truly knows them, but it is clear with Antony’s death something has changed for Cleopatra, and as she artfully plots and performs for Caesar her motives become clear. After Cleopatra has lost Antony forever, she recognizes a truth or authenticity she perhaps never knew before. While earlier Shakespeare identifies Cleopatra’s actions as a performance with a false swoon, he later creates the effect of authenticity with a real swoon— a swoon that makes people wonder if she too has died as a result of Antony’s death. Instead his death has inspired the plotting of her own suicide so that she may join Antony in the afterlife for eternity.
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Details
- Title
- Shakespeare authenticating Cleopatra
- Creators
- Ashine Marie Sipiora
- Contributors
- William M. Hamlin (Degree Supervisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- English, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University; [Pullman, Washington] :
- Identifiers
- 99900525068401842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis