EN 2010 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Closet Drama, Blank Verse, Cross-Dressing
Document Summary
A play is a narrative work written to be performed live (other than a closet drama) Legally free to marry for love, but instead he marries for alliance. He is bound to octavia; she thinks that bound means that he owes her something. She strikes antony hard; this outburst of physicality is shocking because it is expected to be from a man. Upper class women (like cleopatra) had a great deal of power over lower class men (and women)- men cannot resist. Cleopatra makes a very feminine self presentation with her interesting dress and physical performance; loving; emotional. Battles are male activities; something that cleopatra is not very good at- she flees twice from battle. Racism and sexism in philo"s reaction to cleopatra turning away from war ( guy stuff ) Women believed to have felt sexuality more intensely than men. A visual and sound contrast between the feminine world of egypt represented by.
