Caesar and Cleopatra: Metaphors 6 key examples

Once Cleopatra has grown more into her power and adulthood, this term of endearment falls away, and she is portrayed as more cat-like: fickle in termperament and jealous with the objects of her affection. She is even descended from a cat, revealing this to Caesar in the course of their discussion during Act 1:

CLEOPATRA: My great-grandmother's great-grandmother was a black kitten of the sacred white cat; and the river Nile made her his seventh wife.

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Cleopatra's cat-like nature marks her cunning, though it is cunning not well-received by Caesar, her mentor. Cleopatra's transition from kitten to cat over the course of the play signals her maturation in parallel with her moral decline.

Once Cleopatra has grown more into her power and adulthood, this term of endearment falls away, and she is portrayed as more cat-like: fickle in termperament and jealous with the objects of her affection. She is even descended from a cat, revealing this to Caesar in the course of their discussion during Act 1:

CLEOPATRA: My great-grandmother's great-grandmother was a black kitten of the sacred white cat; and the river Nile made her his seventh wife.

Cite this Quote

Cleopatra's cat-like nature marks her cunning, though it is cunning not well-received by Caesar, her mentor. Cleopatra's transition from kitten to cat over the course of the play signals her maturation in parallel with her moral decline.

Caesar compares the value of his former soldier—in the eyes of Theodotus—to the value of an onion in the eyes of a shepherd. Clearly, despite the fact that Pompey fought against Caesar, Caesar mourns the event of his death and despises those who would call it a boon. Despite the fact that he cannot stand Theodotus's devaluing of Pompey's life, he still spares Theodotus and allows him to leave and save the library of Alexandria. This passage reveals a great deal about Caesar's personal values: he cares deeply about human life, even the lives of those who despise and oppose him. Despite his ruthlessness, he is gracious and not unnecessarily cruel.

Cleopatra's deification of Mark Antony as her lover through a hyperbolic metaphor is an important element of Antony and Cleopatra, the Shakespeare play for which Caesar and Cleopatra serves as a prequel. Shaw's choice to include this deification is consistent with Shakespeare's interpretation of her character as an older woman.

If one considers this play in the context of its genre—being, of course, both a history play and a satire—this passage provides interesting commentary on the pervasive romanticization of historical figures. Cleopatra would prefer to picture Antony in her mind as the ideal man: a person without mundane vices that ordinary citizens indulge in. In the preface Shaw wrote to the play, he notes that the vice of lustful overindulgence—which Shakespeare portrays as Antony's fatal flaw in Antony and Cleopatra—is neither grand nor noble but rather something that any person could suffer from. Antony's struggle marks him as ordinary, not extraordinary. Cleopatra resists this imposed mundanity on her romanticized image of Antony, as do the writers of history plays for their respective subjects.

Throughout the play, Caesar is referred to with this same metaphor. Notably, Cleopatra—Caesar's protegee and foil—is often compared to a cat: she is a younger, less capable version of Caesar, whom she considers her mentor. Despite wishing to rule without his influence by the end of the play, she still needs him and relies on him. It is fitting that both characters should share a feline likeness. 

Interestingly, Caesar assigns himself the role of lion but chooses not to act as a predator might in his interactions with Ptolemy. He recognizes that the boy is young and shows him mercy, something Cleopatra would be unlikely to do.

In Western literature, snakes are commonly associated with manipulation and deceit. By comparing Cleopatra to a serpent in the above passage, Shaw establishes such traits as elements of her character. Notably, Shakespeare often likens Cleopatra to a snake in Antony and Cleopatra, where the metaphor is used by other characters to emphasize her role as a seductress or moral corruptor in relation to Marc Antony.  Though Shaw writes a young Cleopatra as manipulative, that manipulation is not necessarily sexual in nature—and neither, crucially, is Caesar and Cleopatra's relationship.

This passage reveals an interesting nuance in Caesar's character: namely, that he despises the banality of wartime but thrives as a leader, working toward the downfall of his enemies and thereby furthering the project of empire. Caesar criticizes the uniformity of thought that his soldiers exhibit, but without that bee-like hive mentality, he would not be able to establish and maintain power. Caesar is critical of the tedium and drudgery of this system; nonetheless, it is a system he himself works within.

This passage also provides a critical perspective on military conquest and empire, both of which tend to be heavily romanticized in historical dramas. This criticism is especially warranted given Shaw's own experience living as a citizen of the British Empire. Viewing his own time period through a critical lens leads Shaw to extend that same lens to history. Alternatively, those who romanticize the past tend to approach current events uncritically.