Historians of the first and second centuries AD, such as Josephus, Plutarch, Appian and Cassius Dio wrote for political purposes and portray Cleopatra as a strong political figure although their views are strongly biased towards Roman interests. As time passed, the attitude towards Cleopatra began to change as Europe entered the Renaissance, with Shakespeare’s Cleopatra being a much more passionate and tragic figure than the depiction of previous historians. Today, the typical modern belief depicted by films is that Cleopatra was a passionate and sexy queen of the Nile who drove men wild with desire and seduced every great leader she encountered. However Leonor Varela depicts a very different Cleopatra in Franc Roddam’s 1999 production than that played by Elizabeth Taylor in Mankiewicz’s 1963 production. The Augustan poets Horace[1] and Virgil are slanted towards Rome, as both were poet laureate to Augustus[2].
Lady Macbeth: The Queen of Deceit The Shakespearian play Macbeth is filled with violence, conflicts, and mysterious environments. Many intriguing and intelligent characters litter the plot, grabbing viewers, or readers’ interests and carrying them into the story. Perhaps the most interesting and deceitful of characters is Lady Macbeth. When Lady Macbeth is first introduced, she is powerful and courageous, but as the plot progresses, readers witness her plummet to a horrifying demise. Throughout the plot, she transforms from a courageous woman, to a rash murderer, and finally leading to a guilt-driven suicide.
Holland’s tells the story of Rome in a way that brings back the republic. With a variety of sources, “Rubicon” is a reliable source of information. Although Holland has a bias, it does not affect the content of the book. “Rubicon” is a thorough examination of the Roman republic starting with its beginnings all the way to Augustus and the end of the republic. “Rubicon” includes a bibliography with over 3 pages of sources.
Nero’s power and strength derived from his mother, Agrippina the Younger. At the beginning of his rule Agrippina acted as a regent, taking control of many aspects of the empire. She manipulated Nero so much that she in essence ran the empire from behind the scenes. Her constant predilection for manipulation eventually causing her son’s rebellion and possible madness as he began to despise her, giving way to her fall of power and ultimately her death. In the words of Tacitus, “she could give her son the empire, but not endure him as emperor”.
Speos Artemidos What she claims in this inscription She strengthened the army She is powerful Instils fear within the enemy Emphasises the expulsion of the Hyksos and maintaining it Uses oracles to emphasise that she is conqueror Achievements she emphasises Building program Army Fear within enemy Trade She emphasises her military role in the Speos Artemidos by calling herself a conqueror, boasting about the expulsion of Hyksos and the fear of her enemies. Therefore, it is clear that Hatshepsut conducted campaigns to Nubia and to a lesser extent in Syria-Palestine Some of these campaigns were commanded by her co-regent Thutmose II Hatshepsut depicted herself in full ‘warrior pharaoh’ regalia. In her coronation scene on one of her Karnak obelisks, she is shown wearing the blue war crown (kepresh) Many scholars still support the view provided by Wilson and compare her reign to that of Thutmose III Important: wasn’t unusual for queens to take part in military matters. Ahhotep lead a military rebellion. Hatshepsut was influenced by early 18th Dynasty queens.
Then the quote continues and states: “You will find them, [women] a set of harpies, absurd, treacherous, and deceitful—regardless of strong obligations, and mindful of slight injuries…” (86). The bluntness of this statement about women would not have come from a man seeking a wife during this time. The female villain of the novel, Mrs. Hammond exemplified these awful characteristics throughout the story. The author, Rebecca Rush was probably surrounded by women, during this time, willing to stop at nothing to secure their future. As the quote continues, “and when your integrity has been
In the early 17th Century Shakespeare wrote a play named Macbeth, in this era men are described as Powerful and women are described as week. Macbeth is presented as strong and masculine but is controlled by his wife, Lady Macbeth. She is seen to subvert female gender stereotypes as she convinces Macbeth to murder the king and famously rids herself of her femininity. Lady MacBeth is evil, tempting and witch-like, through out the play. However, during the play we see her in two different ways.
“The Awakening” is a story about a woman named Edna Pontellier who figures out her true identity. She fights an internal battle with society standards as well as finding her own independence. The title of this story actually gives out the true meaning of the story, and it was often hinted to the readers that she was having an “Awakening” within herself. There are also real life instances that can relate to the meaning of this story. Edna Pontellier often shows a rebellion in her throughout the story, and there are many reasons as to why she feels like she has to rebel.
As stated in the article by Robin Henig, “Over the centuries, women have mauled and manipulated just about every body part – lips, eyes, ears, waists, skulls, foreheads, feet… (55). With certain ways women try to build their confidence level for their visual appearance, they go through a great deal of risks; consequently, severe dangers are more likely to occur, also expressed in the article. In this article, Robin Marantz Henig explains and exposes many different forms and ways woman have deliberately made changes to their bodily figures to fit in the standards of perfection in beauty. She clearly isn’t in favor of these practices from her statement in the article, “The crazed quest for beauty at any cost had led to some bizarre practices along the way” (56). Exactly, very bizarre practices that woman go by to feel better about there appearance rather then their health.
They clearly have an extremely passionate relationship and Shakespeare portrays that Lady Macbeth is willing to do whatever it takes to assist her husband. You could argue that the idea of potential power, or moving up the social hierarchy, goes to Lady Macbeth’s head and that her motivation for helping Macbeth is rather selfish-she alone wants the power. It could also be argued that the ‘fatal’, ‘gall’, ‘murdering’, ‘mischief’, ‘night’, and ‘Hell’ also support the previous point. The audience never actually meet the ‘real’ Lady Macbeth without the influence of the witches. As there is such a huge supernatural element to this scene and it is so carefully attached to Lady Macbeth in this scene, it makes me question how the Elizabethan audience would have reacted to her character.