Shakespeare’s Cleopatra: Sexual Conquerer

Throughout Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, the play’s male characters often refer to the Egyptian queen in scathing and disparaging terms: “gypsy,” “strumpet,” and “whore,” to name a few. Shakespeare suggests that Cleopatra, a sexually aggressive woman, is more renowned for her exploits in the bedchamber than for her leadership qualities. Indeed, the sexual power she possesses is as devastating a weapon as the Egyptian armies at her command. But it is also a double-edged sword. Although Cleopatra successfully uses her sexuality to ensnare lovers, her passion nevertheless hinders her ability to rule effectively.

That she is irresistible to men is undeniable; she is also dangerous. Like a black widow spider, she lures Antony into her lair, uses him sexually, and, by robbing him of his reason, renders him powerless. The man who Cleopatra describes as “the greatest solider of the world” (I. iii. 38) and “the demi-Atlas of this earth” (I. v. 23) is soon reduced to being “a strumpet’s fool” (I. i. 13). The powerful passion that the exotic queen kindles within Antony results not only in the disintegration of the Roman triumvirate, but also in the loss of his self-respect and his manhood.

For example, his decision to follow his lover back to Egypt while in the midst of a sea battle is scorned by his own soldiers as “…an action of shame; experience, manhood, honor ne’er before did violate so itself” (III. x. 21-23). To his credit, however, Antony is not completely blind to Cleopatra’s charms and her influence over him. (“You did know how much you were my conquerer, and that, my sword, made weak by my affection, would obey it on all cause.” III. xi. 65-68). And yet Antony seems either unwilling or unable to break her spell; as a result, her unrelenting passions and sexual desires ultimately lead to his downfall.

Cleopatra herself pays a hefty price for such indulgences. She did not become queen through inheritance, competency or conquest; the crown was bestowed on her by her grateful lover, Antony (“Unto her he gave the establishment of Egypt; made her of lower Syria, Cyprus, Lydia, absolute queen” III. vi. 8-11). Handed such power, she proceeds to rule Egypt not with a scepter, but through her sexuality and is unable to reconcile the two.

Shakespeare depicts her as a self-indulgent, frivolous and narcissistic woman who whiles away her days with billiards, fishing and music (II .v.) and revels in sexual exploits at night. Affairs of state mean little to her, since they interfere with more pleasurable pursuits. But her feminine charms ultimately prove to be her undoing when she fails in her petition to Caesar for clemency (“I cannot project my own cause so well to make it clear, but do confess I have been laden with like frailties which before have often shamed our sex” V. ii. 122-124). The sexual conqueror has herself been conquered.

Shakespeare gives us much to admire about Cleopatra; she is intelligent, shrewd and vivacious. Also, her refusal to meekly submit to Caesar gives her a sense of majesty and dignity that she previously lacks. But all in all, she is a leader devoid of wisdom, and, like Antony, allows sexual desire to overcome all common sense. Because Cleopatra is unable to rule herself, it stands to reason that she is unable to rule an empire.