How Is Cleopatra Dehumanized

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Turgut introduces the character of Cleopatra in Shakespeare's version of the play as suffering from two burdens; the burden of being a woman in a patriarchal society and being an orient character in a western play and Shakespeare's treatment of her as an Other (9). Shakespeare in his dramatizing of Antony and Cleopatra, the only character that he dehumanized is Cleopatra and in more than one circumstance and by using the tongue of more than one character he calls her a strumpet and a whore, while in the same play he has never accused Fulvia, Antony's first wife, of being lust or whore even when she flamed the war against Octavius and fought against him with Antony's brother. On the other hand, Sedley has not accused Cleopatra of being a cunning person or questioned her love to Antony, and I believe that in order to avoid the matter of dehumanizing the other, Sedley has started his play after the war of Actium and, as known to the reader, Cleopatra left the battle and retreated then Antony followed her which causes his defeat in the battle, Antony has not questioned her faithful love to him. Sedley in his adaptation to Shakespeare's play gives the reader a voice to the silenced by giving the space to the Egyptians to represent their refusal to be ruled by …show more content…

367), which implies the superstitious analysis and perspective of those critics to Sedley's version of the play, those who only criticize Sedley's style or way of dramatizing his play ignored the essence and the real reason behind rewriting Shakespeare's play, which is the change in ideology in Restoration era, and that makes Sedley adapts Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra to show and intentionally he uses a well-known play to rewrite, to force his audiences to recognize the changes in England by recognizing the changes which he creates in his

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