Egypt as Seen by Shakespeare in Antony and Cleopatra | ||||
| Journal of Languages and Translation | ||||
| Article 4, Volume 2, Issue 3, August 2004, Page 112-126 PDF (4.69 MB) | ||||
| Document Type: مقالات بحوث مبتکرة | ||||
| DOI: 10.21608/jltmin.2004.152295 | ||||
 View on SCiNiTO | ||||
| Author | ||||
| Eisawy Eisawy | ||||
| Department of Foreign Languages, College of Education, Mansoura University | ||||
| Abstract | ||||
| This paper attempts to study William Shakespeare's (1564-1616) view of Egypt as introduced in Antony and Cleopatra (1607?) (1608?). Shakespeare applied the name of Egypt to the land which was ruled by Cleopatra and as an alternate given name for the Queen herself. Shakespeare introduced Antony as "enchanted" by the Queen of Egypt, Cleopatra saw her love for Antony as "false" and the Romans saw Egypt as the "waste" land. Antony is seen as "… the abstract of all faults/That all men follow" while Cleopatra was seen as "Royal wench" and "a whore". This paper will try to find out the reasons that led Shakespeare to prejudice against Egypt –the Queen as severely as the land. Was it the situation of the Romans of that time to hate Egypt and the Egyptians? Did this attitude have anything to do with the imperialistic attitude of defaming and miniaturizing the enemy (the future colonized) in order to justify for colonizing his land? The paper concludes that William Shakespeare was one of the earliest racists who prejudiced against the other ethnic groups. His attitude against Cleopatra could be incorporated with his anti-feminist attitude in general. | ||||
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