II - Cleopatra

• “She sashayed up the river in a golden barge,” (Cleopatra)

  • Glamour, always a sexual under-tone
• “her fit girls giggling at her jokes.” (Cleopatra)

  • Sisterhood, not requiring men
• “silver plate with grapes and honey, yogurt, roasted songbirds, gleaming figs, soft wines and soaked herself in jasmine-scented milk.” (Cleopatra)

  • Asyndetic list presents abundance and luxury surrounding her as she has plenty of exotic foods
• “She knew her man.” (Cleopatra)

  • Role reversal, she is the provider in this relationship
• “Tough beauty. She played with him at dice,” (Cleopatra)

  • Non-conformist
• “Caesar’s head between her teeth. He crouched with list. On her couch she lay above him,” (Cleopatra)

  • Stronger, more powerful, she is the dominant role
  • AO3 : Cleopatra gambling her sexual partners as she was also involved with Mark Anthony
• “She matched him glass for glass in drinking games“ (Cleopatra)

  • Masculine qualities as he is weaker
• “She watched him hunt.” (Cleopatra)

  • Caeser attempts to appease her, he must impress
• “She let her shawl slip down to show her shoulders, breasts,” (Cleopatra)

  • Sibilance, the sound of a snake symbolises this as a treachery = the paradox of her beauty
• “touched him, made him fuck her as a lad. He had no choice,” (Cleopatra)

  • Crude + blunt, inversion of gender expectations
• “swooned on her flesh for month” (Cleopatra)

  • Alluring and animalistic
• “..of cities lost forever in the sea, of snakes.“ (Cleopatra)

  • AO3 : Cleopatra taking her own life with a serpent.
  • Also a symbol of desire and deviance