Award Date

1-1-2003

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

English

First Committee Member

Evelyn Gajowski

Number of Pages

188

Abstract

This examination is a study of the characterization of Cleopatra in three early modern English plays. The three plays are the following: Mary Sidney's The Tragedie of Antonie, Samuel Daniel's The Tragedie of Cleopatra, and William Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra . Although all three playwrights shared essentially the same cultural environment and historical context, they each created a different vision of the queen of the Nile. Cleopatra's gender and race are the focus of this examination. Sidney presents us with a "white-washed" version of Cleopatra---in an effort to make her more acceptable to the Elizabethan audience. Daniel is sympathetic to Cleopatra, but does make her take responsibility for the disaster that befalls the couple. Shakespeare creates a Cleopatra that is perfect in her imperfection.

Keywords

Cleopatra; Cleopatra, Queen Of Egypt; Daniel, Samuel; Infinite; Mary Sidney; Plays; Samuel Daniel; William Shakespeare; Sidney, Mary; Shakespeare, William; Variety; Visions

Controlled Subject

British literature; English literature--Irish authors; Irish literature; Theater

File Format

pdf

File Size

4167.68 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Permissions

If you are the rightful copyright holder of this dissertation or thesis and wish to have the full text removed from Digital Scholarship@UNLV, please submit a request to digitalscholarship@unlv.edu and include clear identification of the work, preferably with URL.

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Download


COinS