Here Comes The Rain Again¹

Cleopatra is undeniably frustrating.

When Antony reports Fulvia’s death to her, we might expect her to reply more positively than to berate him:

I am quickly ill and well – so Antony loves.²

We could adopt this week’s theme, and merely dismiss Cleopatra as impossible. I think there’s a lot more going on here than her juxtaposition of extremes. 

If we look past the words to the human being, we might see:

Uncertainty and insecurity.

Dependence disguised as distaste.

Pain disguised as wit.

The truth is that Fulvia’s death changes everything.

Fulvia alive was a safely distant status quo Cleopatra could live with. Fulvia dead removes distance as Cleopatra’s protection. As a new bachelor, Antony is suddenly not just a lover, but a valuable political commodity again. For Rome, and perhaps she fears, for himself.

And where does that thought leave a passionate, sensitive woman past her physical prime? Just:

‘A morsel for a monarch’

Perhaps not even that. That was in her ‘green and salad days‘.

The stakes are high, so of course Cleopatra speaks in extremes:

‘If you find him sad, say I am dancing.’

We might denounce Shakespeare’s Cleopatra as desperate for control. She wants control of the emotional weather, to have Antony reacting to her, never the other way round.  It means that Antony is constantly being tested; that she deliberately makes herself impossible to ignore; that decisions are made on emotion, not logic. It would be exhausting, for both of them.

What motivates this?

Not malice. Fear.

Fear of the magic fading.

Fear that her beauty’s power will wane with age.

Fear of not being able to compete on the un-level playing field of a patriarchal world.

Unstable? Certainly.

Insecure? Understandably, I think.

Cleopatra creates storms and uncertainty because that’s where she can best negotiate the fear which dominates her life. 

We love Cleopatra because she isn’t a laughable caricature. 

When she turns away from Antony, it’s always with her body, but never with her heart.

1. Here Comes The Rain Again, Eurythmics (‘Touch’, 1983) Yes, I am old. Yes, it is a classic. ↩︎
2. William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, ed. by John Wilders, Arden Shakespeare, 3rd series (London: Routledge, 1995) ↩︎