A Moral Conflict: The Contrast of Character Between Cleopatra and Octavia

by Katharine A. Ott

Abstract

Between the characters of Octavia and Cleopatra there exists a "moral contrast" (Bree 110) -a conflict of Roman ideals and Cleopatra's foreignness. Throughout the tradition of Cleopatra, authors, including Plutarch, Shakespeare, Dryden, and Fielding, as well as filmmakers such as Mankiewicz, have separated Cleopatra from Rome and Octavia because of her combination of political power and sexuality: "The notion of Cleopatra that we have inherited identifies her primarily as being the adversary, the Other. Her otherness is twofold. She is an Oriental, and she is a woman…" (Hughes-Hallett 4). If Cleopatra represents the 'Other', then Octavia exemplifies Rome itself. She embodies all of the characteristics of a proper Roman wife: beauty, grace, wisdom, and above all obedience to her husband. Octavia is Antony's celebrated wife throughout the literature although their relationship is dispassionate, while Cleopatra's "otherness" prevents her from attaining the respectable title of Antony's wife despite their love. Octavia acts as a character foil for Cleopatra, highlighting Cleopatra's foreign nature and her sexuality, which the Romans find unattractive and unacceptable in the character of a woman.

Plutarch: The Life of Marcus Antonius

I begin my study of the comparison of Cleopatra and Octavia with Plutarch's The Life of Marcus Antonius, a so-called "historical text." Although Plutarch's writing is perhaps our most trusted source on Cleopatra, his "factual" manuscript is by no means unbiased. Plutarch, as we will see with Shakespeare, Mankiewicz, Dryden, and Fielding in the ensuing pages, presents Cleopatra as the opposite of Octavia. While Octavia represents the Roman ideal of a woman, Cleopatra is a self-seeking Egyptian who seduces Antony and blinds him from his Roman duties.

Plutarch views Cleopatra as a purely negative influence over Antony: "if any spark of goodness or hope of rising were left in him, Cleopatra quenched it straight and made it worse than before" (332). To exercise this negative influence, Plutarch believes that Cleopatra holds special, mysterious charms and magic by which she seduces Antony. "Cleopatra has brought him beside himself by her charms and amorous poisons" (344). The Romans, including Plutarch, refuse to believe that Antony would turn against them unless he was under a spell of sorts and therefore Cleopatra must hold a mystical power over him. Associating magic or special charms with Egyptian woman is a common misconception held by the Romans, and Cleopatra suffers because of their prejudice. Plutarch portrays Cleopatra as a type of a witch who lures Antony away from Rome and seduces him to carry out her desires.

Plutarch's Octavia is in every way the ideal Roman woman and wife. She obeys Antony's decisions and does not control him or influence him in any way. Whereas Cleopatra represents a negative influence on Antony, Octavia has a purely positive impact on his character. Plutarch celebrates their marriage, hoping that Octavia's presence will straighten Antony out:

Thereupon every many did set forward this marriage, hoping thereby that this lady Octavia, having and excellent grace, wisdom, and honesty, joined unto so rare a beauty, that when she were with Antonius she should be a good mean to keep good love and amity betwixt her brother and him. (Plutarch 336)

Ironically, Plutarch attributes the qualities of beauty, grace, and wisdom to both Cleopatra and Octavia. The difference between the pure Octavia and the harlot Cleopatra is not in their intelligence, appearance, or charms. Instead, Octavia is depicted as being an honest woman while Cleopatra, the Egyptian, is dishonest, cunning and deceitful, and thus an evil woman when compared to Octavia.

Shakespeare: The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra

Shakespeare heavily relied on Plutarch's The Life of Marcus Antonius for his tragedy, Antony and Cleopatra, and therefore it is not surprising that the play contains many of the same themes of the Roman Octavia versus the Egyptian Cleopatra. Shakespeare, like Plutarch, classifies Cleopatra as an evil woman, calling her a "foul Egyptian" and a "triple-turned whore" (3.8.10,13). Loomba writes that because of Cleopatra's nationality, she "will always stand outside Roman society: Antony can never fully trust her and will marry safe and obedient Roman women like Octavia to ensure his stability within that society" (128). In fact, Antony turns against Cleopatra several times in the play when he suspects that she has betrayed him. During these moments he laments leaving Octavia, a "gem of a woman" (3.8.108) behind in Rome. In this instance Antony tries to resist Cleopatra and revert back to Octavia, however, he cannot resist Cleopatra's love.

Despite the differences between Cleopatra and Octavia, Cleopatra achieves the title of Antony's Roman wife at the end of the tragedy. After Antony's death Cleopatra renounces her political titles and proclaims herself no more than a woman "and commanded \ By such poor passion as the maid that milks" (3.14.74-75). Cleopatra is embracing her womanhood and she shares a common bond with all women: grief and a broken heart. In this scene, "it appears that Cleopatra is tamed; the wanton gypsy becomes Antony's wife, the queen is stripped to an essential femininity that attaches to all women irrespective of class" (Loomba 128). In Shakespeare's play, Cleopatra is able to achieve the role of Antony's Roman wife, living up to Roman ideals, only because she renounces the queen Cleopatra and embraces her womanhood as well as Roman practices, including the burial of Antony: "We'll bury him; and then, what's brave, what's noble, \ Let's do't after the high Roman fashion, \ And make death proud to take us" (3.14.87-88). Cleopatra follows the Roman style of burial and proclaims their tradition as being 'brave and noble'. By following this tradition, Cleopatra hopes that 'death proud to take us', or in other words, she hopes that she will live up to Roman standards and be accepted as a suitable wife for Antony at last.

Cleopatra: Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and starring Elizabeth Taylor

Octavia makes only a brief appearance in the film, Cleopatra, directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and starring Elizabeth Taylor, but her short presence in the film is enough to accentuate the differences between Octavia and Cleopatra and their respective relationships with Antony. There are two comparable dinner scenes in the film: one in which Antony dines with his wife, Octavia, and another with Cleopatra after her arrival in Tarsus.

Shortly after the marriage of Octavia and Antony the couple is shown dining alone in Athens. Octavia, dressed in a white, plain robe, is seated at the opposite end of a long banquet table from Antony. The two eat in silence, although Antony barely touches the food on his plate. Octavia, desperately trying to make Antony happy, asks him several times why he is not eating and "if there is anything that would please you more?" Antony appears annoyed with Octavia's constant prodding, although he apologizes for his rough rebuttals. When one of Antony's messengers, Ruphio, enters the room with news from Egypt, Octavia excuses herself, explaining, "When I hear matters of state discussed by men, invariably I find myself wondering about why the wine has gone sour." Octavia leaves the room, but first bows and kisses Antony's hand. This quiet, simple dinner shared between Antony and his wife Octavia symbolizes their flat, impassionate relationship and Antony's role as master in the marriage.

The dinner shared by Cleopatra and Antony in Tarsus reveals a very different type of relationship. Elizabeth Taylor, playing the part of Cleopatra, is also wearing a white dress, but hers shimmers with glitter and is low-cut on the chest. She wears heavy eye shadow and gaudy jewelry, including a gold headpiece and a necklace of gold coins bearing the likeness of Caesar. Antony and Cleopatra sit side-by-side and Antony ravenously devours his dinner along with goblets of wine. There is lavish entertainment in front of the couple, including beautiful dancing women to please Antony's eye. Cleopatra neither refers to Antony as "my lord", as Octavia calls her husband, nor does she bow at his feet. Unlike Octavia, who belongs to Antony and is mastered by him, Cleopatra is Antony's equal. She does not shy away from political matters; in fact she initiates talk about Egypt and Rome. This dinner sequence exhibits the vivacious, pulsing nature of Antony and Cleopatra's relationship-a love affair between two equal intellectual and sexual beings.

John Dryden: All for Love

Marriage is a recurring theme in John Dryden's play, All for Love. 'Wife' is a title that occurs often in the play-a title that Cleopatra reviles but embraces at the end of her life. Initially, Cleopatra scorns all of Rome, including the Roman state of marriage and Antony's Roman wife, Octavia. Cleopatra believes that Roman marriages are made purely for political reasons and they do not represent love whatsoever. She characterizes a "wife" as a woman who receives respect but has no passions: "Oh that faint word, 'respect'! How I disdain it! \ … \ He should have kept that word for cold Octavia. \ Respect is for a wife: am I that thing, \ That dull, insipid lump, without desires, \ And without the power to give 'em?" (2.79-84). Cleopatra automatically connects the word 'respect' to marriage and both words are attached to a negative connotation. Octavia, being Antony's wife, may receive respect, but she is 'cold' and 'dull'. Cleopatra does not envy Octavia's title or the respect she receives in her role because Octavia is dispassionate and has no sexual desires. Thus, Octavia as a wife is asexual and Cleopatra prefers to be disrespected by the Romans rather than to live without desires.

Through the course of Dryden's play Cleopatra's views on marriage change drastically. Whereas Cleopatra initially despises the title and role of a wife, she embraces the position near the end of her life. After Antony's death, Cleopatra proclaims her love and her desire to be with Antony after death as his wife: "His wife, my Charmion, \ For 'tis to that high title I aspire, \ And now I'll not die less. Let dull Octavia \ Survive to mourn him dead; my nobler fate \ Shall knit our spousals with a tie too strong \ For Roman laws to break" (5.413-417). The 'nobler fate' that Cleopatra speaks of is suicide. By killing herself, Cleopatra hopes to attain the title of Antony's wife after death. However, Cleopatra still does not desire to be Antony's wife in the Roman sense. Whereas Octavia will abide by 'Roman laws' and mourn Antony, a decision that Cleopatra considers 'dull', Cleopatra chooses to end her life and attain a different sort of marriage that expresses more love and passion than the Roman sort.

Sarah Fielding: The Lives of Cleopatra and Octavia

No author presents the characters of Octavia and Cleopatra at such opposition as Sarah Fielding in her work The Lives of Cleopatra and Octavia. In the introduction, Cleopatra is described as a whore while Octavia holds many gracious, enviable qualities for a woman:

Cleopatra presents us with the abandoned Consequences, and the fatal Catastrophe, of a haughty, false, and intriguing Woman; whose only Views were to exert her Charms, and prostitute her Power, to the Gratification of a boundless Vanity and Avarice, without Regard to the Ruin of her Country, or the Sufferings of others.

The amiable and gently Octavia gives us, on the reverse, an Example of all those Graces and Embellishments, worthy of the most refined Female Character. The Dignity she preserved, and the Delicacy of her Manners, became her elevation Station, and were an Ornament to the politest Court. She patronized the Learned, and was of a truly Roman Spirit, in sacrificing her private to the public Good. Nor did this Heroine shine with less Lustre in personal than in public Virtues. She was a sincere Friend, an affectionate Sister, a faithful Wife, and both a tender and instructive Parent. Such was the accomplished Character of Octavia! (41)

Fielding creates a new dimension in the tradition of Cleopatra by writing two narratives, one from each woman's personal point of view. Thus Fielding moves the readers' attentions away from the love story of Antony and Cleopatra and redirects our focus on the radical differences in character between Cleopatra and Octavia: "… thus locating the chief part of interest in the two women rather than in issues of romantic love or moral struggle in the mind of the male" (Bree 110). From this purely female perspective, we see the sharp contrast in morals and upbringing between Cleopatra and Octavia come to light. Fielding takes the image of Octavia and that of the ideal Roman woman-graceful, refined, sincere, and faithful-in direct contrast with Cleopatra-a 'haughty, false and intriguing woman'-who uses Antony for her own goals.

From Cleopatra's early childhood she is taught to work only for herself: "instilled very early into my Mind the Notion, that to please myself was the sole Business of my Life, and that every one around me was born to be my Slave" (56). Indeed, Cleopatra's upbringing is evident in her treatment of Antony as a sort of slave. Cleopatra does not love Antony, and she uses him only as a means for furthering her power in Egypt. "I looked on Antony as my Prey, and was sure of conquering him" (60). And once Cleopatra, the "femme fatale" (Bree 116), has captured her 'prey' and tricked him into falling in love with her, she considers Antony "only as the Means of satisfying her Ambition, or indulging her capricious Humour, without having Affection enough for him to make his Interest, his Honour, or his Happiness, Points worthy of her consideration" (64). Cleopatra uses Antony for her own personal gains and she shuns his interests, honor, and humor in favor of her own. Cleopatra looks down upon Antony, and aside from his political pull in Rome he is unworthy of her.

Octavia, the "pattern wife" (Bree 116), differs significantly from Cleopatra from the very start of her life. During her childhood in Rome, Octavia "was taught, that to contract my Desires, to command my Passions, and to share my Pleasures with others, was the only Conduct which could promise me Happiness" (126). Thus, Octavia's gracious behavior towards Antony is explained by her childhood education. Unlike Cleopatra, she learns that to serve others is to be happy: "sacrificing her private to the public Good" (41), and she continues these generous practices throughout her life. Ironically, neither Cleopatra nor Octavia love Antony. Whereas Cleopatra deceives him, Octavia feigns a love for Antony in order to be a good Roman wife. She elects to "…be as cautious in all my Departments to make Antony a good Wife, as if he had been the Object of my Choice" (134). Following her resolution, Octavia remains faithful and sincere towards Antony and opens her heart to him although she is not in love with him. Unlike Cleopatra, who constantly exercises power over Antony and considers him unworthy of her love, Octavia "never once dreamed of any Superiority" (135) over Antony. Octavia, due to her Roman upbringing, remains submissive and inferior to her Antony, while Cleopatra is not afraid to manipulate or control him.

Conclusion

Queen Cleopatra is forever set apart from Rome due to her Egyptian nationality and sexual awareness. Throughout the history of Cleopatra, she is categorized as a harlot queen, a whore, and a cunning woman by dozens of authors and filmmakers. Plutarch, Shakespeare, Mankiewicz, Dryden, and Fielding are among the many artists who have contributed to the tradition, and they all classify Cleopatra as the opposite character of Octavia-the ideal Roman wife. Cleopatra, in more positive portrayals, desires the title of Antony's wife, while in the worst cases, such as Sarah Fielding's The Lives of Cleopatra and Octavia, Cleopatra has no affection towards Antony whatsoever. Due to Cleopatra's foreignness, her power, her exotic beauty, and sexual awareness she cannot attain the title of Antony's lawful wife in Roman terms. Only in the instance of Shakespeare's play, when Cleopatra renounces her Egyptian heritage and embraces Roman traditions, is she able to approach the state of matrimony with Antony. Regardless of Cleopatra's title or the validity of her love, Cleopatra will never live up to Octavia in the eyes of the Romans due to her perpetual foreignness, and Octavia acts as a foil to the character of Cleopatra because she is the embodiment of Roman wholesomeness and goodness.

Works Cited

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Cleopatra. Dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Perf. Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and Rex

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Dryden, John. All for Love. Ed. N. J. Andrew. New York: W. W. Norton, 1975.

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Hughes-Hallett, Lucy. Cleopatra: histories, dreams, and distortions. New York: Harper

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