Lady Macbeth scolds him again and likens him to a woman: “O proper stuff? This is the very painting of your fear. / A woman’s story at a winter’s fire. / Why do you make such faces? When all is done you look but on a stool.” And then “What, quite unmanned in folly?” Her final shot at Macbeth: “You have displaced the mirth, broke the good meeting with most admired disorder” or you have ruined the party.
Cleopatra is not only the Queen of Egypt but the personification of Egypt itself. She symbolizes everything that Caesar and the Romans have deprived themselves of, such as sexual desires, fun and delight. Even when absent from stage, her presence is felt. From the opening speech of the play we learn a great deal about her. Cleopatra's character is constantly being questioned throughout the play and we never are able to fully grasp her nature.
From the beginning of the play, there is a building of tension amplified by the use of stage direction and music. This continues throughout and culminates in the final scene when the audience feels the sense of loss experienced by all the characters and empathises with Blanche's plight. The first thing one notices when reading Scene 11 is Williams' use of descriptive and metaphorical language to underline the tension between the protagonists, Stanley and Blanche. The description of Blanche's "tragic radiance in her red satin robe" alludes to her loss of innocence at Stanley's hands in Scene 10. In the 1940’s it would have been totally unacceptable to describe rape explicitly.
The sexual powerplay is between Antony and Cleopatra. Cleopatra sensual, sexual and forceful, uses her feminine wiles to control Antony in the palm of her hand. “If you find him sad/Say I am dancing: if in mirth, report/That I am sudden sick.” From Act 1 scene 3, displays her manipulative nature; that she lies without second thought to keep her lover interested. Cleopatra is displayed as the pinnacle of feminine power in seduction, sensuality and manipulation, which is echoed through out the play. Enobarbus’ barge quote from Act 2 Scene 2 depicts Cleopatra as an enchantress or goddess; as something any man should want.
Throughout the play Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, Shakespeare uses various types of metaphoric language to demonstrate Macbeth’s downfall. In the play Macbeth, by William Shakespeare uses similes as one of the largest parts of metaphoric language to show Macbeth’s downfall. Shakespeare uses similes in the very beginning of the book, “…fortune, on his damned quarrel, smiling show'd like a rebel’s whore” (Shakespeare 9). This shows a simile used by Shakespeare that hints at Macbeth’s downfall as early as Act I. The captain compares fortune, which seems to favor Malcolm at first, to a prostitute who favors a man for a short time and then leaves him shortly afterward.
Cleopatra’s contemporaries Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro; October 15, 70 BC – September 21, 19 BC) and Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus; 8 December 65 BC – 27 November 8 BC) demonstrate this view of Cleopatra in their epic poems. Historians like Josephus, Plutarch, Appian and Dio Cassius, from the first and second century AD, portrayed Cleopatra as a strong political women/figure. Shakespeare’s influence on the story of Cleopatra was of a much more passionate and heartbreaking depiction than views of other historians. Today, Cleopatra is depicted by many films and stories as a manipulating woman, known for her beauty and love affairs and ability to seduce every great leader she encountered. However, depictions of Cleopatra are always susceptible to change, as the production by Mankiewicz in 1963 suggest.
Indy Lau 11/29/11 Period 2 Crucible Essay The Girls of Salem Rises to Power Arthur Miller writes The Crucible to show how Abigail and the girls use the witch trials in their favor. In this society, men have all the political powers while the lower rungs of the social ladder are occupied by women. By accusing others, the women are able to gain more power for themselves. In act two for instance, Mary Warren defies her master, Proctor. In the beginning of the play, Mary and Proctor shows the relationship of a master and servant by speaking harshly to her.
He undermines Brutus, conveyed through his lamenting tone “thou art the ruins of the noblest man” to further challanege the perspective that caesars thirst for power was a threat to the roman republic. Shakespeare furthers these conflicting perspectives in Act 3 scene 2 to demonstrate the power of political rhetoric. In the funerary speeches, Brutus’ patriotic tone in “not that I loved Caesar less but that I loved rome more” representes him as a protector of the roman republican values that Caesar threatened. This is sharply
During this time, she raised their son Telemachus to adulthood. Penelope's character is complex. There is a deep unrest throughout the poem about how Penelope's relationships with the suitors will play out. There are seeds of doubt about Penelope, sown by the shade of Agamemnon who says to Odysseus in Hades that his own wife, Clytemnestra will give "an evil reputation to all women, even on one who does good" (199). This deepens the possibility that Penelope might prove unfaithful to Odysseus and builds suspense throughout the narrative.
In Octavious’s speech to the Romans just before he declares war on Cleopatra and Mark Anthony, he creates a negative imagery of Cleopatra. He uses the words, ‘...bewitched by that accursed woman, enslaved by her’ and ‘slaves of a woman’. (Kilvert, S I. (Trans) (1987, pp52, 53, 54 &55) Cassius Dio: The Roman History: The age of Augustus, Harmondsworth, Penguin). Even though Cleopatra is already disliked by the Romans this creates an even worse imagery, it shows Cleopatra as the person with the power.