Cleopatra's death: tragic or triumphant interpretation

¶ … Cleopatra's death tragic or triumphant? Explain in reference to text

Is Cleopatra's death tragic or triumphant?

As a character, Shakespeare's Cleopatra is both sublimely sensual and sublimely ridiculous. She is described early on as beautiful and exotic by one of Mark Anthony's solder but also dangerous to his manhood and reputation: "The buckles on his breast, reneges all temper, / And is become the bellows and the fan / To cool a gipsy's lust" (I.1). Cleopatra seduces Anthony into forgetting his obligations to Rome and impinges upon his ability to fight because she lures him into desiring her and turning against his former ally Octavius Caesar. Anthony struggles throughout the play between his obligations to Octavius, who represents cool, disciplined Roman honor and Cleopatra who represents hedonism and Egyptian lassitude.

Rather than seeking to lead effectively, Cleopatra asks for a sleeping drought when Anthony is away: "That I might sleep out this great gap of time" (I.5). When a slave comes to tell her of Anthony's marriage, she behaves childishly, slapping him and threatening to kill him because he brings bad news. Cleopatra squanders her position of power as well as her love for Anthony. She commands desire, but not respect, and that does not prove to be powerful enough to defeat Rome.

Cleopatra is not presented like a disciplined, intelligent queen. Her pull upon Anthony is sexual, not political, and her death does not seem elevated on the level of Shakespeare's other tragic heroes such as Macbeth and Hamlet, or Greek heroes like Oedipus, because her flaws are so numerous. She is not a great leader and she destroys Mark Anthony's leadership abilities. Her emotions, rather than her reason rule her life and Anthony loses his friendship with Octavius and eventually the loyalty of his soldiers as well as his honor.

Repeatedly, Shakespeare shows how following Cleopatra is ill-advised. Rather than truly caring for Anthony and trying to protect him, she seems more concerned with ensuring that no one else -- not his wives nor Caesar -- has influence over him. The person who does seem to care about Anthony the most is the common soldier Enobarbus, who gives Anthony the wise advice to challenge Caesar on land rather than by sea: "no disgrace / Shall fall you for refusing him at sea,/Being prepared for land" (III.7). However, Cleopatra is taken with the romantic idea of challenging Caesar on the water and insists on accompanying him. Observes another of Anthony's men: "Soldier, thou art: but his whole action grows / Not in the power on't: so our leader's led, / And we are women's men" (III.7). Cleopatra is not a great leader or a great tactician, her primary claim to fame is her ability to make Anthony do what she wants him to do, not with logic but by the force of her feminine wiles. She is not a great woman with a single, tragic flaw, but a woman with a single, great attribute, namely her ability to snare men. While she does seem to genuinely care for Anthony, her anger, jealousy and possessiveness make her unable to encourage him to do what is best.