“The final impression left upon the mind by this woman, in whom there was noreal goodness or grandeur of character, is that of grace and a fascination that never leave her from the beginning to the end, and in her last few moments, that of majesty. As a

“The final impression left upon the mind by this woman, in whom there was no
real goodness or grandeur of character, is that of grace and a fascination that never leave
her from the beginning to the end, and in her last few moments, that of majesty. As
an example of the magic power of beauty and of poetry Shakespeare’s Cleopatra stands alone.

How far do you agree with this view of Cleopatra- and do you think it was Shakespeare’s
intention to present a character who had “no real goodness or grandeur of character”?

In the play “Antony and Cleopatra” I don’t think that it can be said, subject to lack of evidence, that Cleopatra as a person possessed qualities resembling “goodness or grandeur”. If by ‘goodness’ we mean moral probity, being morally good, a pleasant character then, again, I don’t think that Cleopatra fits in with any of these attributes. Her whole demeanour seems one which is very violent and hot tempered but this could maybe be exp...