Egypt and Empire Caesar and Cleopatra serves up surprisingly paradoxical and complex portraits of two of the most

renowned characters
in history. Shaw’s play at times seems like a domestic comedy, but we are also witnessing the last chapter of the Ptolemaic Dynasty and a
significant step towards the foundation of the Roman Empire and the still continuing pattern of Western interference in the affairs of the
Middle East. After Julius Caesar’s short time in Alexandria with his protégé, Cleopatra VII, the world would never be the same.

Rome’s interest in Egypt was longstanding. The fertile Nile valley was the principal source of grain for its expanding territories. In Shaw’s
play, Lucius Septimius is part of the Roman army stationed there years earlier to ensure the continuity of the supply. By the time the play
begins, however, the Roman soldiers had married local women and their loyalties had become divided.

Shaw wrote his play in 1898 at a time when the British army occupied Egypt to protect the flow of Western commerce through the
recently built Suez Canal, and some form of English control lasted well into the 20th century. Of course, we have a Western army
occupying a country in the Middle East today, at a time when oil has replaced grain and the Canal as the preoccupation of the West.

Shaw’s unflattering portrayal of the Egyptian court now seems like a remnant of the British imperial age. His portrait of the 16-year-old
Cleopatra, however, is more insightful. She may not become the queen that Caesar envisions, but she does become a ruler. She
understands the danger that Pothinus represents perhaps better than Caesar, even if we disagree with the manner in which she
dispatches him. Caesar returns to Rome and to his death, but Cleopatra lives on to have the celebrated affair recorded in Shakespeare’s
play. Rome, of course, had the final word. Antony and Cleopatra were defeated at Actium by the man who would become Rome’s first
emperor, and Egypt officially became part of the Empire in 30 BC.

Summary

Prologue.

The play has a prologue and an "Alternative to the Prologue". The prologue consists of the Egyptian god Ra addressing the audience
directly, as if he could see them in the theater (i.e., breaking the fourth wall). He says that Pompey represents the old Rome and Caesar
represents the new Rome. The gods favored Caesar, according to Ra, because he "lived the life they had given him boldly". Ra recounts the
conflict between Caesar and Pompey, their battle at Pharsalus, and Pompey's eventual assassination in Egypt at the hands of Lucius
Septimius.

In "An Alternative to the Prologue", the captain of Cleopatra's guard is warned that Caesar has landed and is invading Egypt. Cleopatra has
been driven into Syria by her brother, Ptolemy, with whom she is vying for the Egyptian throne. The messenger warns that Caesar's
conquest is inevitable and irresistible. A Nubian watchman flees to Cleopatra's palace and warns those inside that Caesar and his armies
are less than an hour away. The guards, knowing of Caesar's weakness for women, plan to persuade him to proclaim Cleopatra—who may
be controllable—Egypt's ruler instead of Ptolemy. They try to locate her, but are told by Cleopatra's nurse, Ftatateeta, that she has run
away.

(The film version of the play, made in 1945, used the Alternative Prologue rather than the original one.)

Acts

Act I opens with Cleopatra sleeping between the paws of a Sphinx. Caesar, wandering lonely in the desert night, comes upon the sphinx
and speaks to it profoundly. Cleopatra wakes and, still unseen, replies. At first Caesar imagines the sphinx is speaking in a girlish voice,
then, when Cleopatra appears, that he is experiencing a dream or, if he is awake, a touch of madness. She, not recognizing Caesar, thinks
him a nice old man and tells him of her childish fear of Caesar and the Romans. Caesar urges bravery when she must face the conquerors,
then escorts her to her palace. Cleopatra reluctantly agrees to maintain a queenly presence, but greatly fears that Caesar will eat her
anyway. When the Roman guards arrive and hail Caesar, Cleopatra suddenly realizes he has been with her all along. She sobs in relief, and
falls into his arms.

Act II. In a hall on the first floor of the royal palace in Alexandria, Caesar meets King Ptolemy (aged ten), his tutor Theodotus (very
aged), Achillas (general of Ptolemy's troops), and Pothinus (his guardian). Caesar enters the room, accompanied by the Roman officer
Ruthius and his secretary, Briton, a Briton by nationality, dressed in all blue. Caesar is not inclined to shed blood in Egypt. Caesar greets all
with courtesy and kindness, but inflexibly demands a tribute whose amount disconcerts the Egyptians. He demands that he be paid part of
the amount of money that Egypt should give to Rome according to the old agreement between Caesar and the former king of Egypt for
the fact that Caesar helped to restore the throne in due time. As an inducement, Caesar says he will settle the dispute between the
claimants for the Egyptian throne by letting Cleopatra and Ptolemy reign jointly. However, the rivalry exists because, even though the two
are siblings and already married in accordance with the royal law, they detest each other with a mutual antipathy no less murderous for
being childish. Cleopatra, who decided to act like a queen, runs up to her brother, pulls him off the throne, and herself sits in his place.
Caesar, touched by the chagrin of the boy, gently calms him. Each claim sole rulership. Caesar's solution is acceptable to none and his
concern for Ptolemy makes Cleopatra fiercely jealous.

Egyptian courtiers and military leaders demand that Caesar leave their land, but he replies that he will do this only after Cleopatra
becomes queen. The conference deteriorates into a dispute, with the Egyptians threatening military action. Caesar, with two legions
(three thousand soldiers and a thousand horsemen), has no fear of the Egyptian army but learns Achillas also commands a Roman army of
occupation, left after a previous Roman incursion, which could overwhelm his relatively small contingent. He warns that he will not be able
to restrain Ruth and his soldiers for a long time, and those eager to snatch swords from their sheath. Potin bitterly laments Roman justice,
the lack of gratitude in the Romans. Caesar is at a loss. He does not understand what is at stake. Then Potin asks Lucius Septimius to leave,
who says that he killed the Republican Pompey, who wanted to defeat Caesar. Caesar is astonished; he is horrified by the crime of Lucius
Septimius.
Caesar stays with Cleopatra, who reproaches him with excessive sensitivity. She also tells him how her father managed to regain the
throne. And he was helped by a beautiful young man who arrived from Rome with many horsemen. Then Cleopatra was only twelve years
old, she fell in love with this young man. She is very surprised when Caesar tells that it was he who sent Mark Anthony to help her father.
Caesar promises her that if she so desires, he will send it to her.

As a defensive measure, Caesar orders Rufio, his military aide, to take over the palace, a theatre adjacent to it, and Pharos, an island in the
harbour accessible from the palace via a causeway that divides the harbour into eastern and western sections. From Pharos, which has a
defensible lighthouse at its eastmost tip, those of Caesar's ships anchored on the east side of the harbour can return to Rome. His ships on
the west side are to be burnt at once. Britannus, Caesar's secretary, proclaims the king and courtiers prisoners of war, but Caesar, to the
dismay of Rufio, allows the captives to depart. Only Cleopatra (with her retinue), fearing Ptolemy's associates, and Pothinus (for reasons of
his own), choose to remain with Caesar. The others all depart.

Caesar, intent on developing his strategy, tries to dismiss all other matters but is interrupted by Cleopatra's nagging for attention. He
indulges her briefly while she speaks amorously of Mark Antony, who restored her father to his throne when she was twelve years old. Her
gushing about the youth and beauty of Mark Antony are unflattering to Caesar, who is middle-aged and balding. Caesar nevertheless,
impervious to jealousy, makes Cleopatra happy by promising to send Mark Antony back to Egypt. As she leaves, a wounded soldier comes
to report that Achillas, with his Roman army, is at hand and that the citizenry is attacking Caesar's soldiers. A siege is imminent.

Watching from a balcony, Rufio discovers the ships he was ordered to destroy have been torched by Achillas' forces and are already
burning. Meanwhile, Theodotus, the savant, arrives distraught, anguished because fire from the blazing ships has spread to the
Alexandrian library. Caesar does not sympathize, saying it is better that the Egyptians should live their lives than dream them away with
the help of books. As a practicality, he notes the Egyptian firefighters will be diverted from attacking Caesar's soldiers. At scene's end,
Cleopatra and Britannus help Caesar don his armor and he goes forth to battle.

Act III. A Roman sentinel stationed on the quay in front of the palace looks intently, across the eastern harbour, to the west, for activity at
the Pharos lighthouse, now captured and occupied by Caesar. He is watching for signs of an impending counter-attack by Egyptian forces
arriving via ship and by way of the Heptastadion (a stone causeway spanning the five miles of open water between the mainland and
Pharos Island). The sentinel's vigil is interrupted by Ftatateeta (Cleopatra's nurse) and Apollodorus the Sicilian (a patrician amateur of the
arts), accompanied by a retinue of porters carrying a bale of carpets, from which Cleopatra is to select a gift appropriate for Caesar.

Cleopatra emerges from the palace, shows little interest in the carpets, and expresses a desire to visit Caesar at the lighthouse. The
sentinel tells her she is a prisoner and orders her back inside the palace. Cleopatra is enraged, and Apollodorus, as her champion, engages
in swordplay with the sentinel. A centurion intervenes and avers Cleopatra will not be allowed outside the palace until Caesar gives the
order. She is sent back to the palace, where she may select a carpet for delivery to Caesar. Apollodorus, who is not a prisoner, will deliver
it since he is free to travel in areas behind the Roman lines. He hires a small boat, with a single boatman, for the purpose.

The porters leave the palace bearing a rolled carpet. They complain about its weight, but only Ftatateeta, suffering paroxysms of anxiety,
knows that Cleopatra is hidden in the bundle. The sentinel, however, alerted by Ftatateeta's distress, becomes suspicious and attempts,
unsuccessfully, to recall the boat after it departs.

Meanwhile, Rufio, eating dates and resting after the day's battle, hears Caesar speaking somberly of his personal misgivings and predicting
they will lose the battle because age has rendered him inept. Rufio diagnoses Caesar's woes as signs of hunger and gives him dates to eat.
Caesar's outlook brightens as he eats them. He is himself again when Britannus exultantly approaches bearing a heavy bag containing
incriminating letters that have passed between Pompey's associates and their army, now occupying Egypt. Caesar scorns to read them,
deeming it better to convert his enemies to friends than to waste his time with prosecutions; he casts the bag into the sea.

As Cleopatra's boat arrives, the falling bag breaks its prow and it quickly sinks, barely allowing time for Apollodorus to drag the carpet and
its queenly contents safe ashore. Caesar unrolls the carpet and discovers Cleopatra, who is distressed because of the rigors of her journey
and even more so when she finds Caesar too preoccupied with military matters to accord her much attention. Matters worsen when
Britannus, who has been observing the movements of the Egyptian army, reports that the enemy now controls the causeway and is also
approaching rapidly across the island. Swimming to a Roman ship in the eastern harbour becomes the sole possibility for escape.
Apollodorus dives in readily and Caesar follows, after privately instructing Rufio and Britannus to toss Cleopatra into the water so she can
hang on while he swims to safety. They do so with great relish, she screaming mightily, then Rufio takes the plunge. Britannus cannot
swim, so he is instructed to defend himself as well as possible until a rescue can be arranged. A friendly craft soon rescues all the
swimmers.

Act IV. Six months elapse with Romans and Cleopatra besieged in the palace in Alexandria. Cleopatra and Pothinus, who is a prisoner of
war, discuss what will happen when Caesar eventually leaves and disagree over whether Cleopatra or Ptolemy should rule. They part;
Cleopatra to be hostess at a feast prepared for Caesar and his lieutenants, and Pothinus to tell Caesar that Cleopatra is a traitress who is
only using Caesar to help her gain the Egyptian throne. Caesar considers that a natural motive and is not offended. But Cleopatra is
enraged at Pothinus' allegation and secretly orders her nurse, Ftatateeta, to kill him.

At the feast the mood is considerably restrained by Caesar's ascetic preference for simple fare and barley water versus exotic foods and
wines. However, conversation grows lively when world-weary Caesar suggests to Cleopatra they both leave political life, search out the
Nile's source and a city there. Cleopatra enthusiastically agrees and, to name the city, seeks help from the God of the Nile, who is her
favorite god.

The festivities are interrupted by a scream, followed by a thud: Pothinus has been murdered and his body thrown from the roof down to
the beach. The besieging Egyptians, both army and civilian, are enraged by the killing of Pothinus, who was a popular hero, and they begin
to storm the palace. Cleopatra claims responsibility for the slaying and Caesar reproaches her for taking shortsighted vengeance, pointing
out that his clemency towards Pothinus and the other prisoners has kept the enemy at bay. Doom seems inevitable, but then they learn
that reinforcements, commanded by Mithridates of Pergamos have engaged the Egyptian army. With the threat diminished, Caesar draws
up a battle plan and leaves to speak to the troops. Meanwhile, Rufio realizes Ftatateeta was Pothinus' killer, so he kills her in turn.
Cleopatra, left alone and utterly forlorn discovers the bloodied body concealed behind a curtain.

Act V is an epilogue. Amidst great pomp and ceremony, Caesar prepares to leave for Rome. His forces have swept Ptolemy's armies into
the Nile, and Ptolemy himself was drowned when his barge sank. Caesar appoints Rufio governor of the province and considers freedom
for Britannus, who declines the offer in favor of remaining Caesar's servant. A conversation ensues that foreshadows Caesar's eventual
assassination. As the gangplank is being extended from the quay to Caesar's ship, Cleopatra, dressed in mourning for her nurse, arrives.
She accuses Rufio of murdering Ftatateeta. Rufio admits the slaying, but says it was not for the sake of punishment, revenge or justice: he
killed her without malice because she was a potential menace. Caesar approves the execution because it was not influenced by spurious
moralism. Before leaving Egypt, he leaves Rufius as governor. Cleopatra remains unforgiving until Caesar renews his promise to send Mark
Antony to Egypt. That renders her ecstatic as the ship starts moving out.

Character Sketch of Julius Caesar

The historical Caesar, three time married, the man Suetonius contemptuously called “every woman’s husband and every man’s wife”,
obviously has no place in Shaw’s play. In Shaw’s play Caesar stands for humanity in its highest development, Cleopatra for untamed
natural passion. Shaw’s Caesar is depicted as the deceptively simple man of whom Socrates is the classic prototype. He is kind to Romans
and Egyptians alike; but as Cleopatra comes to realize, the kindness he bestows on others is not the result of sentimentality, as she first
supposes but is the sort of kindness one might show to an arrival of another species, free alike from passionate attachment and moral
indignation. Shaw’s hero is properly presented in the first act as a man normally susceptible to the charms of woman, but his relation to
Cleopatra from first to last is clinically pure. He is mainly her tutor. According to the best authorities, Cleopatra was twenty one years old
when Caesar came to Alexandria. It is possible that Shaw was misled as to her age by Froude’s account of Cleopatra, or perhaps
Mommsen; but it is all together more likely that he wished to avoid the problem of managing his Caesar prudently in the neighborhood of
a young woman whose amorous proclivities were legendary.

Shaw therefore side – stepped the romantic issue in this manner thus preventing Caesar and Cleopatra from taking part in what might
have been a dramatic masterpiece. Shaw’s play is permeated with Mommen’s pro-Caesar view, who far from considering Caesar as a
tyrannical autocrat regarded his Caesar “so little at variance with democracy”. In Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, we find a picture of Caesar
that reduces him to a mere petty self-glorifier. Jilius Caesar gives us Plutarch’s Caesar diminished in stature so that he is nothing more than
an Elizabethan stage – tyrant. Instead, Shakespeare exalts Brutus at Caesar’s expense. Caesar’s championing of the populace against the
patricians in the Roman class war made him anathema to such writers as Suetonius, Lucan and Shakespeare. On the other hand, 19th
Century historiography, reacting against aristocratic feudalism, hailed Caesar as the long overdue reformer of an outmoded constitution.
Hence Caesar awakened administration in such men as Goelthe, Hegel, Mommsen, James Froude and Warde Fowler. Shaw’s play is
permeated with Mommsen’s anti-aristocratic and anti-constitutional point of view. The soldiers’ prologue ridicules the snobbish
pretensions of the Royal Guard, whose class prejudices and chivalric code hopelessly limit their effectiveness as fighters. The Ra prologue,
in its devastating judgment of Pompey, echoes the scorn Mommsen pours on the legalism and political myopia of Caesar’s rival. Shaw
further extends this antiaristocratic criticism to Egypt’s ruler, scourging the playboy extravagances most spectacularly evident in the reign
of Cleopatra’s father Ptolemy Auletes, “The Flute – Blower”. Shaw’s Caesar is thus not reformer of codes but the man who has outgrown
them. He stands for progress, not in the political and social, but in the evolutionary sense. He is a new breed of animal born with sounder
instincts than the average man. Where the question uppermost in the mind of the man in the street will be whether or not Cleopatra has
become Caesar’s mistress, and where the sentimentalist will condone the sexual relation provided Caesar is in love with her, Shaw thinks
that the lack of any such emotional bond is the important thing. Given this, it is to him a matter of indifference whether their relation is or
is not a sexual one. To underline the difference between those Romans and Egyptians who share the stage with him Shaw uses an
allegorical device unique in this play. He identifies the aggressive, greedy Romans with bull like and dog- like animals – a wolf- headed
Roman war tuba opens the play with a “Minotaur bellow”; Rufio calls himself a dog at Caesar’s heels; the Egyptianized general, Achillas, is
described as looking like a curled poodle. In contrast, the feminine and treacherous Egyptians are given catlike and snakelike qualities–
Cleopatra is compared to a kitten and a serpent, Theodotus to a viper, Ftatateeta to a tiger and a crocodile.

Shaw’s Caesar and Shakespeare’s are simply two different men. By contrast, their Cleopatra are recognizably the same woman. Shaw’s
girl- queen has the winsomeness, the grace, the impertinence, the caprice, the petulance, the cowardice, the treachery, the histrionic
bent, and the cruel anger of Shakespeare’s Cleopatra, together with her inability to conceive of any approach to men which is not mere
imperiousness, babyish wheedling, or languorous seduction. That one is sixteen and the other forty, Shaw considers an irrelevance, his
point being that the Cleopatra temperament is fully formed at the earlier age, since it is infect a kind of arrested development. Shaw
admired Shakespeare’s Cleopatra as an artistic achievement, where he thought the older playwright had “made a mess of Caesar under
the influence of Plutarch”.

Character Sketch of Cleopatra

Caesar’s example has not influenced her at all, and she remains profoundly ambivalent in her feelings toward him. Part of her, the
affectionate and sentimentally dependent child, wants his fatherly approval and is achingly jealous of any attention he pays to others,
while the other part, the passionate woman, longs to be free of his paternal surveillance. When Ponthinus accuses her of secretly desiring
Caesar’s death, Cleopatra, who does not understand herself at all, is thrown into a murderous fit of rage, hatred and chagrin, all the more
bitter because the eunuch has come so close to the truth. Caesar, who understands her perfectly, calls her behaviour natural and makes
no attempt to alter her conduct beyond providing the lesson in deportment which are the most her nature can absorb.
Shaw’s Cleopatra is dwarfed by Caesar, but she develops and it is upon her development that the action centers. Like Caesar, Cleopatra
desires power. She desires, above all, the power to do as she pleases, to be herself, the more so as she has been under tutelage all her life.
Her natural impulses, however, are not trustworthy. By nature she is cruel, willful, vengeful and vain, and it is only through fear that she is
induced to behave properly. Shaw’s Cleopatra is a child. Shakespeare’s heroine, a character Shaw professed greatly to admire, is depicted
as a mature and exquisitely voluptuous woman, ruined by passion she has no wish to restrain. She is an excellent example of the sort of
woman the Renaissance associated with Eve, the temptress, and doubtless it was the magnificence with which she fulfilled her role as
femme fatale that fascinated Shakespeare. In comparison, Shaw’s Cleopatra is miniscule. She is poised between desire and passion, but
neither has as yet any decisive claim upon her, and the contrast in scale between her petty concerns and Caesar’s vast designs provide the
comic background of action

Short Analysis

Caesar and Cleopatra is a play written in 1898 by George Bernard Shaw that depicts a fictionalized account of the relationship between
Julius Caesar and Cleopatra. Shaw wanted to prove that it was not love but politics that drew Cleopatra to Julius Caesar. He sees the
Roman occupation of ancient Egypt as similar to the British occupation that was occurring during his time. Caesar understands the
importance of good government, and values these things above art and love. Caesar and Cleopatra opens as Caesar’s armies arrive in
Egypt to conquer the ancient divided land for Rome. Caesar meets the young Cleopatra crouching at night between the paws of a sphinx,
where—having been driven from Alexandria—she is hiding. He returns her to the palace, reveals his identity, and compels her to abandon
her girlishness and accept her position as coruler of Egypt (with Ptolemy Dionysus, her brother). Caesar and Cleopatra was extraordinarily
successful, largely because of Shaw’s talent for characterization. A second theme, apparent both from the text of the play itself and from
Shaw's lengthy notes after the play, is Shaw's belief that people have not been morally improved by civilization and technology.A line from
the prologue clearly illustrates this point. The god Ra addresses the audience and says, "ye shall marvel, after your ignorant manner, that
men twenty centuries ago were already just such as you, and spoke and lived as ye speak and live, no worse and no better, no wiser and
no sillier." Another theme is the value of clemency. Caesar remarks that he will not stoop to vengeance when confronted with Septimius,
the murderer of Pompey. Caesar throws away letters that would have identified his enemies in Rome, instead choosing to try to win them
to his side. Pothinus remarks that Caesar doesn't torture his captives. At several points in the play, Caesar lets his enemies go instead of
killing them. The wisdom of this approach is revealed when Cleopatra orders her nurse to kill Pothinus because of his "treachery and
disloyalty" (but really because of his insults to her). This probably contrasts with historical fact. The murder enrages the Egyptian crowd,
and but for Mithridates' reinforcements would have meant the death of all the protagonists. Caesar only endorses the retaliatory murder
of Cleopatra's nurse because it was necessary and humane. Cleopatra was only sixteen when Caesar went to Egypt; but in Egypt sixteen is
a riper age than it is in England. The childishness I have ascribed to her, as far as it is childishness of character and not lack of experience, is
not a matter of years. Caesar is one of the best brain children of Shaw. Caesar and Cleopatrais purely an antiromantic comedy. In this play
Shaw tries to establish the principle that passion in its various aspects must be disciplined and controlled by reason. He presents Caesar as
a man of practical wisdom, a man of reconciliation and a man who is master of his mind. The central theme of the play ‘Caesar &
Cleopatra’ is the wickedness and futility of revenge. Shaw’s aim was neither to present Cleopatra as an immortal lover nor to idealise
Caesar a mighty warrior and the conqueror of the world. Shaw’sCaesar is tired of war. As an iconoclast, Shaw wants to break the idealism
on war and revenge. So he presents Caesar as a man of clemency and a messenger of the Life Force. As he does in his other plays, Shaw
uses his sword against sentimentalism, revenge and romantic illusions on war.Shaw tries to give Caesar the justice that Shakespeare
denied him. He makes deviations from history in order to project him as the greatest man that ever lived. History tells us and Shakespeare
supports it that Caesar fell a preyto the charms of Cleopatra, the serpent – queen of the Nile. But Shaw ignores these facts to project
Caesar’s greatness as a man and this makes Caesar and Cleoptra’an anti-romantic comedy.Shaw’s Caesar is bold and anti romantic. He is
not infatuated with Cleopatra. Caesar transforms her. He makes her a real queen from a timid teen-aged girl. She becomes as woman,
‘from a kitten to a cat.’ Caesar shows the characteristics of Fabianism . He is against revenge. In the climax of the play in Act.IV,he
expresses ‘ murder shall breed murder, always in the name of right and honor and peace, until the gods are fired of blood and create a
race that can understand.” Shaw’s plea for an evolutionary change is revealed here.Like Bluntchli in ‘Arms and the Man’, Caesar expresses
Shaw’s anti-idealism.In the end of act two of the play, Caesar speaks to Cleopatra, ‘No, Cleopatra, Noman goes to battle to be killed’.
Caesar is against killing. He never accepts the killing of Pompy by Lucius. As Shaw tells in his notes on Caesar, “Caesar is greater off the
battle field than on it”.In the fourth act of the drama, Caesar clearly proves that he is the spokesman of Shaw Caesar and Cleopatra are
more as symbols of opposing standards ofconduct than as persons that they stay in memory. He is the instruments of the‘Life
Force’.Caesar is not romantic before Cleopatra. She wants to use Caesar to terminate her enemies. But Caesar is not so. Cleopatra is only a
foil to Caesar.Shaw stresses on the genius of Caesar and not on the beauty of Cleopatra. "Caesar and Cleopatra": - the 20th century
literature is characterized by a rebirth of dramatic interest both in Great Britain and in the United States. In England the influence of Ibsen
made itself strongly felt in the problem plays of G.B. Shaw and in the realism of John Galsworthy and Somerset Maugham. T.S. Eliot
revived and enriched the verse drama, John Osborne expressed the rebellious attitude of the "Angry Young Men" in Look Back in Anger.
Eugene O'Neill, Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller gave America a serious drama, with modern features, influenced by the European
experiments. - the modern "drama of ideas" is exemplified in the plays of Ibsen, Shaw, Galswworthy, and many others. The problem plays
represent in dramatic form a general social problem, a philosofic idea, shown as it is confronted by or must be solved by the protagonist. -
Shaw's plays are conflicts of ideas and his characters prime reason for existence is to put forward these ideas. His heroes were often
created as mothpieces for the playwright's ideas. They tend to make a lot of witty, intellectual speeches through which Shaw's ideas are
conveyed to the audience. - the true subject of a debate drama being an idea, the events in the plot are less important. Shaw said about
his plots: "Shavian plots are as silly as Shakespearean plots and, like Shakespeare's they are all stolen from other writers". the innovatory
technique is based on reversal: Shaw takes a familiar theatrical type or situation and reverses it so that his audience is forced to reassess
things radically. In Caesar and Cleopatra Shaw reverses the traditional view on the two legendary characters. His Caesar has no trace of
heroism and grandeur. He loos like an old gentleman, a well-educated member of the English middle-class, endowed with a sense of dry
humour. Cleopatra, the glamorous, ambitious and clever Queen of Egypt, appears in Shaw's play as a rather common, timid young girl who
has nothing from the majistic figure of the legendary queen. -in Shaw's plays paradox is the most important comical device. Shaw's
reinterpretation of history:Shaw's historical plays deglamorize history, underlining the discrepancy between the legend surrounding
historical personalities and the reality that lies beneath the "myth". The technique of reversal functions with great comic effect when
applied to famous historical characters like Caesar and Cleopatra. Caesar, far from being a heroic figure, is seen by Cleopatra as an elderly
gentleman, who cannot scare even a girl. What is even funnier, he is told by a girl (for that is Cleopatra's image in Shaw's play) how to
govern: "You are very sentimental, Caesar; but you are clever; and if you do as I tell you, you will soon learn to govern". G.B. Shaw
explained in his Notes to Caesar and Cleopatra that he intended "to produce an impression of greatness by exhibiting Caesar as a man, not
mortifying his nature by doing his duty, but as simply doing what he naturally wants to do

POWER RELATIONS

Power consists of what creates and defend the control of someone on the other people (and it) includes the entire relationship social who
supports the goals (control of), ranging from the physical violence up to the relationship psychological most smooth used by the thought
of someone to control the minds of others (Morgenthau, 1978). Definition relation from Merriam Webster “Relation is an aspect or quality
(such as resemblance) that connects two or more things or parts as being or belonging or working together or as being of the same kind
(the relation of time and space), specifically a property (such as one expressed by is equal to) that holds between an ordered pair of
objects”. power relations is the relationship between the people who is have a power or people who is capable and powerful and have an
impact to get the desire.

Indicators of power relations

Indicators of power relations which show in the drama are clearly visible. There are five indicators which illustrate power relations, those
are:

Authority: Propelling Self to Take Power

Authority in the novel illustrated by Cleopatra who is authorize Egypt by propelling herself to take over the power. Cleopatra successful
chases away Ptolemy and his servant from Alexandria so Cleopatra became a mistress in Alexandria palace. Clearly, Cleopatra successful to
authorize Alexandria and became a mistress and leader in the palace.

2 Dominance: Blocking Others to Get Power Dominance is a powerful move especially in social hierarchy. Merriam Webster states that
block is putting a block on any future development. From the statement above the researcher know that blocking others contributes to
future plan. It means that Cleopatra obviously cut off Ptolemy’s head because he blocked Cleopatra to get her throne. The political effect
is belonging to the conflict of battle between Cleopatra and his little brother (Ptolemy). The political effect constitutes in the drama
between Caesar, Cleopatra and Ptolemy it’s because Egyptian have an obligation Caesar regarding the restoration of old kingship.

Controlling: Influence Others to be a Supporter

Controlling is giving someone the power to control how something is managed or done. The power of capacity is of causing an effect in
indirect or intangible ways. In this case the researcher seen that Cleopatra influences some people to support her get her throne especially
Julius Caesar that have a big power in that time. Cleopatra influences Caesar to help her to take her throne. She says “Oh, please, PLEASE! I
will do whatever you tell me. I will be good! I will be your slave”. She is begging Caesar to be his slaves if he wants to help her, she also
used her beauty and her wealthy to influents others

1 Putting Brother as an Enemy

Consider her young brother as an enemy. That is illustrated Cleopatra considers Ptolemy as her enemy because Ptolemy hampers
Cleopatra to get her throne. The part of the drama includes the conflict based on the sociological perspective. It shown from the drama
that Cleopatra and his young brother have a conflict in the fight to get throne. Conflict theorist challenges the status, encourage social
change, and believe rich and powerful people force social order on the poor and the weak. From the argument it can be seen from the
drama that Cleopatra is discriminate her young brother as her enemy

Taking Competitor as an Align

The roman army became Cleopatra’s slaves who oversee the palace gate from Egyptians (Ptolemy and his servant). She is more powerful
than her young brother Ptolemy. She gained the Roman army and also Caesar to resist Ptolemy and his servant. The parts of the drama
include the functionalist perspective based on the sociological approach. A sociological approach in functionalist is the consideration of the
relationship between the functions of smaller parts and the functions of the whole. Strategic alignment is the link between an
organization’s overall goals and the goals of each of the units that contribute to the success of those overalls goals. The successful of
strategic alignment is leadership

Gain: Battle Bringing Benefit

The benefit of the war is the gain that obtained in the battle. Gain is something wanted or valued that is gotten, something that is gained,
and something that is helpful: advantages or benefit and an increase in amount, size or number. Normally gain is an increase in something
especially something good. The root of gain is “to earn, trade or capture”. Related to the references people actually get gain from what
they do, they think that doing anything must influence the gain. However, Caesar as the emperor of Rome has capability to gets gain from
the war battle with Ptolemy.
The Portrayal of Power Relations through Characters.

Ambitious Character Ambitious is having controlled by ambition, having a desire to be successful, powerful, or executive. Cleopatra has
ambitious character who describes her own pretention, capable, wealth and her powerful. It can be seen from the way she considering
trivializing other people, always wants to be a winner, thirsty of praise, always want to stand out, and want to work hard in order to realize
her wish.

Weak Character

Based on the data, it can be seen that power relations of the drama can be known through characterization of the story named Ptolemy
Dionysus. The weak and innocent character can be seen from Ptolemy, who is weak and innocent young child that is just ten years old boy.
The weak characters of Ptolemy show from that evidence bellow, Ptolemy become tools by his caretaker who has political ambitions to
authorize Egypt.

Vested Interest Character

Based the data, it can be found that portrayal power relations can be known through characterization of man named Rufio. The supporting
character in the story of drama, he is the official of Rome palace. He also became Caesar’s guard. Rufio is a man who is care with Caesar.
He has socially personality to other he is care much with other he also good guardian for Julius Caesar.

Greedy Character

One of the leading characters of the drama has greedy character. He is Ptolemy Dionysus, he is ten years old. Greedy in the case is the
man who receive throne as a legacy. As we know that Ptolemy is the firstborn son from king Auteles, so he receives the legacy from his
father. The man who has greedy personality is someone who is get inherits something from their family. In this case it is occurring in
Ptolemy, he is inherits the throne from his father who is the king of Egypt.

Pragmatic Character

Caesar is one of the figures that have pragmatic character. Caesar is an old man, he is 50 years old. Caesar is the emperor Rome. He is
doing something to get what he wants especially to authorize Egypt. He is also popular as political cunning. Powerful man is someone who
has big impact, potency, effect and capable of exerting power. A powerful is lot to say about faith and good works and free grace. Caesar is
the strongest man in that time it makes him becomes a pillar to the successful of the battle.

Through Events

Events which show power relations in this drama are clearly visible. There are six events which illustrate the power relations in the drama,
those are: (1) Rebellion of Daughter, (2) War Between the King Troops andDaughter Troops, (3) Alliance of Mark Antony, (4) Death of
Daughter,(5) Succession by the Son, (6) Taking Over the Throne.

Rebellion of Daughter

Rebellion is an act of violent or open resistance to an established government or ruler. The action or process that resisting authority,
control or convention. Rebellion is action undertaken by a group aiming to replace the government in a state or to secede from the state
to form a new one. It means that rebellion occur to take a power from other.

2 War Between the King Troops and Daughter Troops

The beginning of the war between the king troops and daughter troops is when Berenice want to take over the throne from her father.
She wants to a queen of Egypt who is authorizing of Egypt region. The war is occurring between the daughter supporter and king
supporter.

Alliance of Mark Antony

Alliance is a memorandum of understanding either formal or informal which aims to protect self from a threat that comes from the
external or internal. Alliance is a relationship in which people agree to work together. It means that alliance is the important ways to get a
solution when someone else get problem and can’t solve the problem. In this story of the drama show the way alliance occur in the part of
the story.

Death of Daughter

Through the drama, Berenice was finally dead. Her father stuck her head off. And finally her father gets his throne back it is because the
help of Mark Antony. Although Brerenice is his daughter but he decided to kill her, he think that if someone start do rebellion with him it
means that they are as an align. So the king kill her with stuck her head off. Berenice always make a problem with other such as with her
own family. After years ago the king was passed away. He passed away because of the disease and his died is natural. The king inherits his
throne to his son.

Succession by the Son

King is one of the rulers in the palace. King is the male ruler of an independent state, especially one who inherits the position by right of
birth. In that event through the drama is when someone who get inherits from their family and became a sequel of the throne. Based on
data the major character that is Ptolemy is a son from king Egypt. He is ten years old. He is become a son who inherits the position of the
king in Egypt. Because of he is a son from the king of Egypt he become a king in the Alexandria palace. Someone who is inherits the throne
usually a man.

Taking Over the Throne

Power relations are the elements that Cleopatra is doing for take over the throne from her little brother. With power relation she is
successful lead Egypt with the help of Julius Caesar. Julius Caesar is an emperor of Rome he is famous as the political cunning he also
powerful man at that time. Cleopatra taking over the throne from her brother, because she wants to lead Egypt she also has another
reason to taking over the throne. It is because her brother only became tools of his caretaker.

Setting of Place

There is some setting of the drama that is occurring in the drama. Those are Syria and Alexandria. Syria is a place that Cleopatra exiled by
Ptolemy’s caretaker. She exiled by his caretaker because of they think that Cleopatra is such as parasite. Alexandria is another setting of
the drama; Alexandria is a palace which is Ptolemy and Cleopatra want to authorize it. Alexandria is the main royal palace in the drama.
The war and battle appear in the Alexandria.

(G4/3rd,8th L)

Historical Events
304 BC: Ptolemy I, a general in the army of Alexander the Great, declares himself king of Egypt.

200 BC: Rome sends a nobleman to Egypt to act as guardian to the young king Ptolemy V. Egypt soon becomes an independent state in
name only

81 BC: Ptolemy IX dies. The Roman dictator assigned to Egypt, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, places the late king’s nephew, Ptolemy XI Alexander I,
on the throne and forces him to marry his predecessor’s elderly wife. After 19 days of marriage he murders her, for which the citizens of
Alexandria strike him from the throne and kill him. They summon Ptolemy XII, the bastard son of Ptolemy IX by a concubine – later to
become Cleopatra’s father – from Syria and hastily place him on the throne.

70 or 69 BC: Cleopatra VII (our heroine) is born, following her sisters Cleopatra VI Tryphaena and Berenice IV.

60 BC: Pompey, Crassus and Julius Caesar form the First Triumvirate. Pompey and Caesar demand the sum of 6,000 talents from Ptolemy
XII in exchange for protection from his rivals. He borrows the money from a Roman financier and plans to pay it back by levying a new tax.

58 BC: The people of Egypt revolt against the new tax. Ptolemy XII flees to Rome. The people of Egypt place his eldest daughter, Cleopatra
VI Tryphaena, on the throne.

57 BC: Cleopatra VI dies and the next sister, Berenice IV, succeeds her

55 BC: Ptolemy XII returns to Egypt, puts Berenice to death, and assumes the throne again.

51 BC: The 18-year-old Cleopatra VII and her father rule jointly for a few months until his death, whereupon Cleopatra’s 10-year-old
brother, Ptolemy XIII, becomes her co-ruler.

49 BC: Pompey is appointed the guardian of the young Ptolemy XIII. They depose Cleopatra.

48 BC: Pompey, now engaged in a war with Caesar, decides to set up a base in Egypt. On his arrival, Ptolemy XIII’s government (led by his
chief advisor, Pothinus) sends an envoy into the harbour to greet him. Pompey steps onto the welcome party’s boat and is assassinated,
his body thrown overboard and his head kept to present to Caesar.

Caesar arrives in Alexandria. Rather than leaving immediately, as the Egyptians hoped he would when he found Pompey already
dispatched, he decides to enforce Ptolemy XII’s will that his son and daughter should rule together. He summons Ptolemy XIII and
Cleopatra to the palace, and, at age 52, is instantly smitten with the 21-year-old Cleopatra. They begin an affair.

Pothinus calls 20,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry to lay siege to the palace, shutting in Caesar, Cleopatra, Ptolemy and another sister,
Arsinoe. Caesar places Ptolemy under house arrest, whereupon the army attacks the palace. Caesar’s forces capture and torch 72 Egyptian
ships in the Alexandrian harbour.

Arsinoe escapes the palace and flees to Achillas, the head of the military forces, who declares her queen of Egypt. Later, Caesar releases
Ptolemy from house arrest. Ptolemy takes over command of Arsinoe’s armies.

47 BC: Ptolemy’s army loses a battle with Caesar’s army, and in the retreat Ptolemy, aged 15, drowns in the Nile. To prove to the Egyptian
people that he is really dead, Caesar has the Nile dredged and his body recovered. His golden armour is put on display. Caesar calls up
Cleopatra’s youngest brother, 12-year-old Ptolemy XIV, to be her new co-ruler.

Caesar returns to Rome. Shortly thereafter, Cleopatra’s son (whose paternity is inconclusive) is born and she names him Ptolemy Caesar;
Alexandrians nickname him Caesarion, “little Caesar.”

46 BC: Cleopatra travels to Rome to sign a new treaty of friendship between Rome and Egypt – and to continue her affair with Caesar

44 BC: Caesar is assassinated. Cleopatra returns to Egypt. Ptolemy XIV dies later that year and Cleopatra’s toddling son joins her as co-
ruler.

41 BC: Mark Antony becomes governor of the territories bordering Egypt, and arranges an official meeting with Cleopatra. She becomes
his mistress.

40 BC: Antony returns to Rome. Later that year, Cleopatra gives birth to twins fathered by Antony, and names them Alexander and
Cleopatra.

36 BC: Antony and Cleopatra meet in Antioch and spend the winter together.

35 BC: Cleopatra gives birth to another son by Antony, named Ptolemy Philadelphus.

32 BC: Antony divorces his wife, Octavia, in favour of Cleopatra. He writes his will and deposits it with the Vestal Virgins. His rival,
Octavian, seizes it and informs the Senate that it contains three atrocities: Antony declares that Caesarion is Julius Caesar’s son, leaves
large sums of money to Cleopatra’s children, and asks to be buried in Egypt. Octavian declares war on Cleopatra.

31 BC: Octavian’s fleet meets Antony and Cleopatra’s fleet for the Battle of Actium. Antony and Cleopatra are bested, and flee to
Alexandria.
30 BC: Octavian wins control of Alexandria. Cleopatra hides in her mausoleum; Antony receives a message that she has committed suicide.
He plunges his sword into his stomach to follow her. As he slowly dies, he receives another message that she is alive and wants to see him.
He is conveyed to her mausoleum, where he dies. To escape capture by Octavian, Cleopatra kills herself. Her method has never been
conclusively proven, but legend says she smuggled a venomous snake into the mausoleum and ended her life by allowing it to bite her.
Octavian has Cleopatra’s eldest son, Caesarion, and Antony’s eldest son, Antyllus, put to death.