Examples of Renaissance Femininities in Antony and Cleopatra

Allison Capik 2008

From the very beginning of the play, we are given reason to believe think of Cleopatra as a "gypsy" (referring to Antony, “…And is become the bellows and the fan to cool a gypsy’s lust” I, i, 9), that has coaxed Antony away from his duties in Rome, to her home in Egypt. When messengers try to take Antony away, she tells Antony to leave her to tend to his duties in Rome (“You must stay no longer; your dismission is come from Caesar” I, i, 28). She is outraged and talks of his faults to her chambermaids, even though he has remained in Egypt. This playful nature sets her up to be a “damsel in distress” type of character for Antony to dote upon, but as the play progresses she becomes a dominant character and is responsible for Antony’s demise. Her decisions, whether incidental or not, reveal her position as a powerful woman of society.

The majority of Renaissance literature has been crafted by middle age men and as a result, the myth that men and women lived as equals was created (Jankowski 23). The play was written in either 1606 or 1607, during a time when women were forced to marry and live under the rule of their husbands (Jankowski 37). As a sovereign ruler of the play, Cleopatra is portrayed as a woman that can overcome Renaissance constraints and be seen as a strong feminine figure by both Renaissance and contemporary readers of the play.

“Shakespeare has blurred our vision by the contradiction of calling the play Antony and Cleopatra” ( Walker 119). After reading the entire play, this quote struck me as I was doing my research. Antony is supposed to be seen as the male protagonist but keeps folding under the pleas of his mistress. His death not only comes before hers in the play (Act IV), but she speaks throughout the remainder of that and into Act V, “a space traditionally reserved for the death and last words of tragic heroes” ( Walker 122). In this way, their gender roles are reversed, though the ways in which they die can be considered gender correct.

The statement “no woman is the protagonist in a Shakespeare play” (Kehler 137) can be proven false because Cleopatra can be seen as an example of a female protagonist. She would be portrayed as a male actor on a Renaissance stage (as she reminds us in Act V), but throughout the play she does not seem to be known as a person by any of the characters, making her seem like an actress within the story itself. Being referred to as a “whore” and an “enchantress” may be some of the facets Cleopatra has, but is there anyone that knows the real her? I believe that she can be considered all of these things because she seems to spend a lot of time doing nothing in particular, and therefore can be seen as whatever people portray her to be. She puts up a façade that allows people to see her as a lover and a ruler, but as readers we do not gain insight to her thoughts.

Cleopatra uses female dominance to overpower Antony throughout the entire play. She tells him to leave for Rome, but he says that duty wants him to stay in Egypt and love her. In Act II she complains that he has been thinking about Rome again, and when he enters she leaves the room. He leaves for Rome, and even though she initially told him he should leave, she mourns that he is not there with her. Instead of listening to Enobarbus, Antony allows Cleopatra to go into battle with him. Her fleet leads Antony’s to lose the battle at sea, which I consider the first act of deception on Cleopatra’s part. Antony can also be considered careless, but these events show how far he was willing to go to prove his love for her. She admits that she has been with Antony out of fear instead of love, which leads Antony to believe that she is betraying him.

In Act IV, Antony threatens to kill her for this apparent betrayal and her chambermaid suggests that she lock herself in a monument and have someone report that she has killed herself. Antony has been called the naïve person out of the duo, but Cleopatra shares that title by deciding to go along with this plan to find out Antony's reaction. What annoys me most is that she always wants to know what his reactions are going to be. If she really loved him, she would be able to trust him. Antony is ready to kill Cleopatra because she said her love was not real, but when the message is delivered that she killed herself, he vows to join her. Cleopatra should have realized that even under his rage, Antony's love for her was still there. Even as he is dying, she asks him to be pulled up to her level so that she will not be captured by Caesar, dominating his actions right up to his death.

“It is widely accepted that there are direct correspondences between geography and gender in Antony and Cleopatra” (Comensoli 73). The city of Egypt is a place of romance and sexuality, which is reflected in Cleopatra’s persona. This is certainly a change of pace from Antony’s strict life in Rome and may be part of the reason why he is attracted to her. Whether leisurely or not, as a ruler she seems to have more control over current affairs than Antony does, if only for the fact that he has left his wife and abandoned his duties in order to be with her. After a first read of the play, I considered Antony to be a weak male character in some circumstances because he allows himself to be manipulated by Cleopatra. He leaves to go to Rome because she orders him to and has left initially during a time of crisis. Though he may “love” Cleopatra, he has a wife and his duties as part of the triumvir require his presence in Rome. During the Renaissance women would have been punished at the thought of holding power over their husband, or even speaking when not spoken to. Shakespeare has created a character in Cleopatra that knows what type of power she can hold over a man and uses it to her advantage. Females reading this in the Renaissance may have thought of her as a scandalous character but still a strong female figure. Though I understand Antony’s love for Cleopatra, I am not led to believe that he could love her enough to want to leave his wife and all of his duties in Rome. He has been a strong soldier in a battle and is allowing his life to be governed by a promiscuous Egyptian queen. He is married to Fulvia, when she dies he marries Octavia (to maintain peace), but is still in love with Cleopatra. Their relationship is flawed from the start because of her dominance and his lack of responsibility. Antony may divulge back into his duties for a period, but continues to come back to Cleopatra and meets his death under the hands of her deception.

Antony maintains the same character throughout the majority of the play, and Cleopatra remains a mixture of honesty and dishonesty, love and hatred, conspiracy and careful planning, and is powerful but very aware of her place as a woman. She will not allow herself to be paraded through the streets as a prisoner of war, so decides to maintain her dignity and femininity by killing herself. “One critic would have us believe that she changes radically with the death of Antony; another would have it that she remains the same Cleopatra from beginning to end” (Bryant 183). When comparing her to Fulvia and Octavia, Octavia is a dull foil to her, and Fulvia is a shrew and shrill-tongued (Hazlitt 1). Octavia embodies what a religious Renaissance woman would be like, while Fulvia seems impossible to deal with. They are minor characters but provide a balance or even a counterpoint as being the things that Cleopatra is not—gentle, apprehensive, naïve, temperamental (at certain points), and collapse under the dominance of Antony. I had forgotten that Cleopatra wishes to know about Octavia, either to compare herself to Antony’s new wife (Act II, scene v); an important detail for Cleopatra’s character as a whole because when she finds out of Octavia’s attributes, she can remain content in her love for Antony.

I have reflected on Cleopatra’s attributes for being a strong woman, a leader, a lover and an example of what a Renaissance woman was not, but in the end she is just worried about protecting herself and her emotions remain ambiguous. She has been deceiving him the entire play, and even as he is dying she wants his body to be carried up to her. After he dies, she mourns her loss and then tries to seek her own death. If the gender roles are supposed to be switched, I could definitely see Antony as being feminine in some ways, but I expected more out of Cleopatra. I tried to develop this paper in ways that would show her as being the opposite of a traditional Renaissance woman. She can be seen as a “strong female figure” for all audiences, and for most of the play that is justified. However, once her dignity is threatened and she knows that Caesar is after her, it seems like she will do anything to remain as noble as possible, another form of strength but still a sign of weakness under the folds of another powerful ruler. She dies what could be considered a decent death, but could have been avoided (like many other deaths) if there was a change in her character's actions.

Femininity in the Renaissance was apparent for a reason; it did not allow women to be as careless and as reprehensible as Cleopatra was. Women were under the rule of their father or their husbands, so what makes Cleopatra such a likeable character at first is that she is not afraid to be her own person. She is with Antony and has managed to take him away from his country and his duties. The entirety of the play consists of her convincing the readers that she is truly in love, but not letting anyone inside of her thoughts. In the end, I realize that she would have been a much better character for me if she possessed some of the qualities of a true Renaissance woman-composure, refinement, and consistency. With those attributes, she would have had the decency to truly think about other people and consummate her actions for the better of everyone, instead of just herself.

Works Cited

Bryant Jr. , J.A. Hippolyta's View: Some Christian Aspects of Shakespeare's Plays. United States: University of Kentucky Press, 1961.

Comensoli, Viviana and Russell, Anne, eds. Enacting Gender on the English Renaissance Stage. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1999.

Hazlitt, William. ” Antony and Cleopatra" Characters of Shakespeare's Plays. 58-63. 16 Oct 2006. <http://www.theatrehistory.com/british/antony001.html>

Jankowski, Theodora A. Women in Power in the Early Modern Drama. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1992.

Kehler, Dorothea, and Baker, Susan. In Another Country: Feminist Perspectives on Renaissance Drama. Metuchen: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1991.

Shakespeare, William. The Necessary Shakespeare. Ed. Bevington, David. New York: Pearson Longman, 2005. 748-802.

Walker, Julia M. Medusa's Mirrors: Spenser, Shakespeare, Milton, and the Metamorphosis of the Female Self. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1998.

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