Cleopatra

Running header: Cleopatra Cleopatra Name Institution Class Lecturer Date Abstract Cleopatra VII, was the reigning queen of Egypt and she has intrigued us for centuries. The of Cleopatra VII`s story is one that has been told many times for decades, and the many different and vastly varied representations of her and her story are exclusively based on the ways in which men and society have perceived women and their role in society right through history. The perceptions of women starting from the Hellenes, the Greeks who greatly partial Roman ideals, and following those perceptions through to the end of the 19th Century, it is easy to see how Cleopatra has been used to represent the "good woman." For instance, she has been used as a role model for women, to show what their suitable role in society was and to shape their actions and beliefs into an acceptable form. Cleopatra Research Paper Cleopatra VII (Philopatris Netjeret Merites) was the last Pharaoh of ancient Egypt and the last of the Ptolemaic dynasty. The events surrounding how she is celebrated of her beauty, her love affairs, her rise to power, her relationships with the Roman emperors Julius Caesar and Mark Antony and her tragic death continue to fascinate and path way that give rise to more mysteries, her story has been told and retold day in day out, many times. Undeniably, William Shakespeare`s "Antony and Cleopatra" being the most famous in this recent times and in her depiction in a film by Elizabeth Taylor (Shakespeare, 1955). Despite the fact that her story has been recounted dozens of times Cleopatra`s character remains elusive, subtle and more baffling. However, while the main events of her life and her death are not in doubt, there also were many stories told regarding her qualities which are impossible to attest to. This essay attempts to demonstrate, establish and provide evidence about Cleopatra`s diverged representation of herself and how men and the society in general perceived the girl child or to be more precise, women, throughout the aggregate of the past events. This essay attempts to give a review of the role of women in the society as perceived by the community as a whole. Women were never viewed as important people in the society, they had minor roles like cooking, taking care of children and most definitely they were supposed to be under the power of their husbands and men of the society as a whole. Because of her beauty and intelligence Cleopatra has been represented abstractly as a romantic legend in this modern times, this is not only because of her undying ambition for political power during her time but because of her love for her country, a country she would die for, Egypt and she is classified by historians to be the last Pharaoh of Egypt. She was the only Ptolemaic Pharaoh to speak the Egyptian language. She also took on the Egyptian religion. She was very intelligent and was a shrewd politician with an extraordinary charisma. Said to be still in her teens when she took to the throne, Queen Cleopatra's beauty and political machinations have risen to mythical proportions. Cleopatra came to the throne after death of her two elder sisters and after death of her father whom was much hated by the Egyptian...