Did Cleopatra ever love Antony? : a postcolonial re-reading of an exhausted text

Abstract EN

This paper examines several issues: first, Shakespeare's involvement in the Orientalist system through his degrading depictions of, Cleopatra, as voluptuous, while he describes the Western gods, Caesar, and Octavia, as chaste.

Second, a defense of the Egyptian queen as patriotic and calculating who desires the protection of Egypt as her main goal.

Third, Shakespeare's portrayal of Antony as a Roman leader who irredeemably slipped into the Orient and into Cleopatra's temptation.

Fourth, an in-depth analysis of Cleopatra's real relationship with Antony.

Did Cleopatra ever love Antony? Or did she use him as a shield to secure her country against the violent threats of Rome? The paper concludes with a reference to Cleopatra's honorable death compared to Antony's humiliating one, with a hint to Shakespeare's significant role in the Orientalist system of domination.

The theoretical approach is mainly postcolonial with some reliance on selected feminist voices that relate to the topic.