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].
How and why have the portrayals of Cleopatra VII changed over time? Over the many years the story of Cleopatra has been around, the perceptions and portrayals of her reign and life in 69 BC – 30 BC have constantly changed. Many historians have different interpretations based on their own personal attitudes and views of the events which occurred in Cleopatra’s life. Due to the constant change in society, Cleopatra has now been called a shameless temptress who used blatant sexuality to maintain her grip on the throne of Egypt. 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.
Unlike Saudi Arabia today, East Asian women bind their feet to make them appeal more attractive to men. In Western Europe women had more freedom; women were allowed to hold more high ranking positions. They were also able to coerce men into political aqcuistions (some women were heavily involved in politics even though they couldn’t hold office). Anne Boeyln, King Henry VIII second wife was one of the few who actually cared about politics;she was eventually beheaded but her legacy lives on because she was able to make Henry divorce Catherine of Aragon. Western European women were more civilized and were able to voice their thoughts, even though they weren’t able to hold office they were extremely valued in advice on political matters but not matters of war.
As Eunice is used to present a wider background for the play, she also presents the society at the time, and sometimes voices the audience’s opinions, for example, after Stanley beats Stella, Eunice’s speech is punctuated with many ‘!’, showing hers and, furthermore the audiences, shock at the violence. Compared to the violence between Stanley and Stella in Scene 3, Williams portrays Eunice’s ordeal to be less dramatic and more normal, showing that as the play has progressed that domestic violence was a regular occurrence in the 1940’s. Furthermore, Williams has used Eunice to also enforce the submission of women during the set time period, using the alcohol Eunice drinks after the beating by Steve to portray this; alcohol in A Streetcar symbolises a means of escape from reality, mainly used by the protagonist, Blanche DuBois. By presenting Eunice to be drinking alcohol conveys the idea that she can’t cope with her relationship with Steve, and uses alcohol to escape it, much like
The Corruptions of West Egg The 1920’s was a time in American history that brought about great change in American society. The young people were moving away from the thinking of the Victoria era and pushing towards the loud and raucous period know as the roaring 20’s. The 1920’s changed the way society viewed topics such as sex, marriage, race and the roles of women. The author of the novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald takes the newly popular idea of female equality and applies it to his book. The female characters in novel are on an equal level with the male characters in the book which is why the female characters are as equally corrupt as the male characters.
The novels following the civil war devoured “dime-novels” which depicted the wild West and other romantic adventure scenes. These novels were giving away to realism and reflected more on materialism of the industrial society. For example, Mark Twain’s books like The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are examples of social injustice 13. There was growing tension in the late nineteenth century between women's traditionally defined "sphere" of family and home and the social and cultural changes of the era. A.
In Western Europe, males would reinterpret the Bible to place further restrictions on women, and reinstate more power for their own gender. Also in Western Europe, a more urban and complex culture was evolving, which led to more extreme male dominance. In summary, between the times of 600 and 1450 C.E., the role of women greatly altered, specifically in China and Western Europe. New customs were practiced, which usually resulted in the lessening of importance for females. Small these changes may be,
Both images lean towards a woman’s eroticism and progressing roles in society in similar ways. While the two pieces look of the same genre because of the styles and techniques the artists used as well as erotic images of women, the difference between the two is that Hannah Höch’s image is supposed to send a message about presenting the “progress of women’s enfranchisement.” Höch seemed to be attempting to emphasize her political position, which would appear to be against the Weimar Republic. She also seemed to be attempting to destabilize society during the Weimar Republic in Germany and in her piece she placed pictures of German military leaders’ heads among “exotic dancers’ bodies,” which was probably an outrage as well as humorous to her fellow Dadaists and admirers. The cut-and-paste of photographs that Höch used created a textured appearance to the image as well as linear space due to the positioning and placing of each image. Man Ray’s image is merely of a woman whose torso-shape is supposed to emulate or symbolize a violin.
Gwen Harwood chooses to represent social institutions in a negative light because often in Gwen Harwood’s poems, women are portrayed as victims of the social circumstances of the 1950s and in the past as well. But Harwood sometimes chooses to take a different view and instead has the women either fight against the male dominant character, choosing to be more than just the mans possession or be an independent women who has ambitions and determination to be successful and not necessarily just be a mother. By placing the man as the dominant sex that provides for the family, and the women as the housewives and mothers, she gives the reader a view of how people were in the 1950s, and then adds a twist of the women dismissing this accepted behavior to express her opinion of such issues. Gwen Harwood’s work frequently focuses on woman being demoralised by society’s practices that reduce her to a lesser being. A common worldwide value that Harwood rejects as the normality in life with her poems.
Both Antony and Cleopatra and the 16th – 17th century were both at a time when the role of women in life was not valued as much as men and the principles of ruling Rome, Egypt and England in a well-ordered society were of great concern. In Shakespearean time (16th-17th century) rules and values of discrimination towards women and the way in which they were treated and presented were very much similar to the opinions and the way in which women were treated in 40-30 BC, in the time Antony and Cleopatra were set in. An example of this would be in the play of Antony and Cleopatra where Cleopatra is being described by Enobarbus (Act 2 Scene 2, Page 142): “Age cannot wither her, Nor custom stale her infinite variety. Other women cloy The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry Where most she satisfies. For vilest things Become themselves in her, that the holy priests Bless she is riggish.” Where Enobarbus is describing how all women can feed a man’s appetite and give them whatever they want or need (“The appetites they feed, but she makes me hungry”), displays how all women in the time of the play were stereotyped as an invaluable prize that could satisfy men if they were ever desired.