Bernard Shaw's Ceasar and Cleopatra - Book Report/Review Example

Bernard Shaw's presentation of Cleopatra George Bernard Shaw used a unique technique to depict Cleopatra in his one of the famous work "Ceasar and Cleopatra". Since it is historical play he could successfully bring the social reflection of the time under the royal invasion of territories focusin the fact of Roman invasion of the world with a special reference of Egypt and the consequences. The character bears the might of maternal love, a genuine human of flesh & blood and political ambition via romantic tragedy. Order#: 171758 Deadline: 2007-05-23 18:24 Style: APA Language Style: English UK Pages: 8 Sources: 5 Writer ID: 6746 THE PLAY 'CEASAR AND CLEOPATRA': AN INTRODUCTION Caesar and Cleopatra is a play by George Bernard Shaw which was first published as part of his 1901 collection Three Plays for Puritans together with Captain Brass bound's Conversion and The Devil's Disciple. The play has two layers. The first one deals with the fact that Shaw wanted to prove that it wasn't love but politics that drew Cleopatra to Julius Caesar. Shaw stresses the relations between the Roman and Egyptian conquerors. In contrast to what probably happened historically, Cleopatra successfully arranges for the murder of the eunuch Pothinus after he humiliates her in front of Caesar. The famous scene in which Cleopatra is secretly brought inside a rolled carpet into Caesar's presence was credited by Otto Skorzeny as the inspiration for his doing the same to his kidnapping victim Mikls Horthy, Jr. in 1944 during Operation Panzerfaust. It is en evident that the play's was an incredible while we analyze the film version of the same story. Filmed in Technicolor with lavish sets, the production was rumored to be the most expensive film ever made in Britain at that time. Pascal went so overboard with this production that he went to Egypt to collect sand to get the right color. DEPICTION OF CLEOPATRA IN LITERATURE AND MULTIMEDIA It is nevertheless the stronghold of the history that captivates us towards the pivotal role of the character. Cleopatra's story has fascinated scores of writers and artists through the centuries. While she was a powerful political figure in her own right, it is likely that much of her appeal lay in her legend as a great seductress who was able to ally herself with two of the most powerful men Julius Caesar and Marc Antony of her time. After Antony's rival and Caesar's legal heir, Gaius Julius Caesar Octavian who later became the first Roman Emperor, Augustus, brought the might of Rome against Egypt, it is said that Cleopatra took her own life on November 30, 30 BC, allegedly by means of an asp. Her legacy survives in the form of numerous dramatizations of her story, including William Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, several modern films and the HBO series Rome. Cleopatra was a direct descendant of Alexander's general, Ptolemy I Soter, son of Arsinoe and Lacus, both of Macedon. A Greek by language and culture, Cleopatra is reputed to have been the first member of her family in their 300-year reign in Egypt to have learned the Egyptian language. History further adds the flavour of conspiracy theory in the line of assassination. While Cleopatra was in exile, Ptolemy became embroiled in the Roman civil war. In the autumn of 48BC, Pompey fled from the forces of Julius Caesar to Alexandria, seeking sanctuary. Ptolemy, only fifteen years old at that time, had set up a throne for himself on the harbor. Pompey was murdered by one of his former officers, in Ptolemaic service. He was beheaded in front of his wife and children, who were on the ship he had just disembarked from. Ptolemy is thought to have ordered the death as a way of pleasing Julius Caesar and thus become an ally of Rome, to which Egypt was in debt. This was a catastrophic miscalculation on Ptolemy's part. When Caesar arrived in Egypt two days later, Ptolemy presented him with Pompey's severed, pickled head. Caesar was enraged. This was probably due to the fact that, although he was Caesar's political enemy, Pompey was a Consul of Rome and the widower of Caesar's only legitimate daughter, Julia who died in childbirth with their son. Caesar seized the Egyptian capital and imposed himself as arbiter between the rival claims of Ptolemy and Cleopatra. MOTHERHOOD AS THE SOURCE OF POWER AND GOODNESS At first glance, there is something inherently illogical in the idea that through the presence of Cleopatra's children, all by Roman men, her devotion to Egypt and its people is displayed. Motherhood defines Cleopatra; it is the yardstick with which she is compared to all women. Having children, and, more importantly, loving them, humanizes Cleopatra without weakening her. Her strength derives from her maternal nature, and her power derives from her strength. Her representation in literature thus becomes a matter of simple mathematics. A Cleopatra who is bad mother equals a bad woman equals a bad queen. Conversely, Cleopatra as good mother equals good woman and good queen. Love of children equals love of country. It is these equations that provide the key for unlocking the mystery that is Cleopatra. MATERNAL INSTINCTS: THE ROLE OF CLEOPATRA'S CHILDREN IN DEFINING HER CHARACTER According to Cheryl Thayer there are few roles that Cleopatra has not been made to fulfill. She is queen, goddess, lover, whore, wife, and witch. Yet it is her role as mother that most defines how she is to be perceived, and which of these other roles she will take on in a given work of literature. Cleopatra's children, or the absence of them, play a definitive role in characterizing Cleopatra. When Cleopatra is childless, she acts like a child herself, either petty or selfish or so deeply in love that she ignores all else. When she has children, however, her role as mother extends far beyond her actual offspring and encompasses all of Egypt. Her protectiveness of her children is used to mirror her protectiveness of Egypt-if she is a good mother than she is also a good queen. Whether she is a good mother, a bad mother, or no mother at all is used by every author or director to characterize Cleopatra as a woman and as a symbol. In Bernard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra, Cleopatra is both chronologically and mentally a child. Not only do she and Caesar not have children together, they do not even have a sexual relationship. Shaw "makes Cleopatra, who was probably about nineteen or twenty when Caesar arrived in Egypt, into an emotionally and intellectually retarded sixteen year old who pouts and prattles...peeping out from behind her nurse like a bashful toddler" (Hughes-Hallet 252). In order change Caesar from a lover into a father-figure, Shaw turns Cleopatra into a helpless but petty infant; he glorifies Caesar's character at the detriment of Cleopatra's. After her altogether pointless and foolish carpet scene that actually costs the lives of Roman soldiers, Caesar says to a scared and clinging Cleopatra, "My poor child, your life matters little here to anyone but yourself" (Shaw 84). Not only is Shaw's Cleopatra childish and indifferent to the plight of Egypt, but she is completely useless. Even Caesar, with whom she has the closest relationship to in the play, who takes on the role of a father, does not really care whether she lives or dies. Even at the play's end, when Caesar has almost succeeded in making a woman out of her, she is still a far cry from a queen, and Caesar, wisely, leaves his soldier Rufio to govern Egypt. Cleopatra, without anyone who depends on her, is left as a dependent herself. Her lack of duty leads to a lack of power, and the reverse is then made true. CONLUSION: MOTHERHOOD AS THE SOURCE OF POWER AND GOODNESS George Bernard Shaw used the whole defense of his tools to depict the character of pivotal role based on history "Cleopatra" in his unique play "Ceasar and Cleopatra."At first glance, there is something inherently illogical in the idea that through the presence of Cleopatra's children, all by Roman men, her devotion to Egypt and its people is displayed. It would seem, if anything, to divide her loyalties between Rome and Egypt, and to distract from her duties as a queen. Yet, even in the literary works that emphasize Cleopatra's childishness or evil ambition, she never forsakes Egypt for either Rome or her children. Having a child with a foreign man actually serves to strengthen her claim to the position of Egyptian queen and goddess, as well as all of the duties encompassed by such offices. Egyptian religion "supported the notion of a mother/goddess who lived in separation from the god who was the father of her son, just as Cleopatra lived divided from Caesar, whom she claimed as the father of her son Caesarion" (Hamer 16). Thus, "the need for the validation of a male co-regent is confronted and set aside by appeal to divine precedent; the absence of Caesarion's father is transformed into a positive asset, since it confirms the parallel between the divine pair and the royal one" (Hamer 16). Cleopatra is actually empowered by having a son by a man whose loyalties lead him elsewhere, leaving Cleopatra as the sole nurturer and protector to both her son and her nation, and thus binding her more tightly to both. By simply identifying her and her situation with the goddess Isis, Cleopatra is able to be presented as a good mother to her son, a good queen to her nation, and a good goddess to her people. Motherhood defines Cleopatra; it is the yardstick with which she is compared to all women. Having children, and, more importantly, loving them, humanizes Cleopatra without weakening her. Her strength derives from her maternal nature, and her power derives from her strength. Her representation in literature thus becomes a matter of simple mathematics. A Cleopatra who is bad mother equals a bad woman equals a bad queen. Conversely, Cleopatra as good mother equals good woman and good queen. Love of children equals love of country. It is these equations that provide the key for unlocking the mystery that is Cleopatra.George Bernard Shaw (born 26 July 1856, Dublin, Ireland died November 2, 1950, Hertfordshire, England) was an Irish writer famed as a playwright, he wrote more than sixty plays. He was uniquely honoured by both a Nobel Prize (1925) for his contribution to literature and an Oscar (1938) for Pygmalion. He was a strong advocate for socialism and women's rights that reflected through the characterization of Cleopatra in a genuine appreciation of women's empowerment in history. Courtesy: Cleopatra. Dir. Cecil B. DeMille. With Claudette Colbert and Henry Wilcoxon. Paramount, 1934. Cleopatra. Dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz. With Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. 1963. George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), Anglo-Irish playwright, critic. Letter, August 7, 1919, to Thomas Demetrius O'Bolger. "Biographers' Blunders Corrected," Sixteen Self Sketches, Constable (1949) Croall, Jonathan, Gielgud: A Theatrical Life 1904-2000, Continuum (2001) pg. 360. Official name after 42 BC, Imperator Gaius Iulius Caesar Divus (Latin script: GAIVS IVLIVS CAESAR) Read More