“To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool” This paradox of fire and water, portrays is this the reality of Cleopatra? , Or is it just an imaginative perception of Cleopatra. Is this part of the infinite variety Enobarbus is talking about? To some extent this is not an accurate perception of Cleopatra’s personality because Enobarbus is under the influence of the Egyptian delights and enjoyments but it does not mean that he is not telling the truth about Cleo.
Enobarbus’ speech is followed by a less lyrical and exotic description of Cleopatra. When he saw her “hop 40 paces through the public streets”, she was “breathless” yet able to “power breath forth”. This as a whole is something of a paradox. This prepares us for greater paradoxes of Cleopatra’s ‘infinite variety’, where she is contrasted with other women in making men ‘hungry’, “Where she most satisfies; for the vilest things, Become themselves in her” .The vile things in life are suited to her, so therefore the vilest things are a variety of Cleopatra’s satisfaction of life. Cleopatra’s cruelty and violence towards Marian is apparent through the play showing that vile things in life are suited to her because what Cleopatra wants she gets, never considering how cruel her actions may have been.
Enobarbus believes that Cleopatra manipulates other men to make them hungry and will be looking for more, and knows that people cannot get enough of her. ‘Other women cloy the appetites they feed, but she makes hungry’. It is the men who are hungry for her even when satisfied by her by her ‘physical’ abilities. She loves the attention she gets and knows that men like Antony cannot get enough of her. When the vile things are becoming in her, priests bless her when aggressive and bad tempered. This is because the priests respect her for whom she is and that they want what she has got. Therefore the conception of her character is grounded upon a paradoxical union of opposites.
When talking about what sort of hold Cleopatra has over people, Enobarbus believes Antony can never leave her completely. ‘Never. He will not’ She knows that she has that hold of Antony and uses it to her advantage.
Also, she has a great love for drama and acting, sometimes teasing Antony by pretending she is angry, upset and even ill. Cleopatra plays with his feelings when she finds out that Antony’s wife Fulvia is dead. Antony expects her to feel happy as she was her enemy, but instead she is cruel to him. “Oh most false love!” (1.3.64). Cleopatra is accusing Fulvia pretending to be dead so Antony will go back to Rome. Cleopatra is trying to make Antony stay in Egypt with her and when this does not work she pretends to be ill so she gets sympathy from him.
“I am quickly ill and well, so Antony loves”(1.3.72-73)
Cleopatra is playing with Antony here because if her ‘illness’ does not keep him in Egypt, her accusation that his love is fickle will. She can maintain this by acting and making situations a drama when actually situations are not as bad as they are, therefore making her accusations of herself being ill, are false.
Before Antony arrives Charmian tells Cleo that she should not play games with Antony if she loves Antony. On arrival Antony replies to her is as if he is trying to calm her down but this still shows that Cleopatra has got a very strong hold of Antony because he always answers to her demands. ‘Now my dearest queen’ however this time he does not meet to her demands and say that he is going to leave her. Cleopatra is not so ill because she keeps on talking and manipulating, reminding him about the past. She is trying to make him feel guilty so he will not leave her. This reveals Cleopatra to be selfish and what she wants is what she gets. She even mocks Antony about fertility “I would I had thy inches. Thou shouldst know there were a heart in Egypt”and the affair they had. She is pretending to feel sorry for Fulvia to manipulate Antony.
Dramatic irony is used within the play. Cleopatra says that Antony has been lying, when ironically she is the one who is lying about her illness. It is effective because Cleopatra’s personality is shown to be dramatic and Shakespeare uses this, so that the character Cleopatra can manipulate who ever she wants. There is a total change within her when Antony says he is leaving. She recognises that she has lost the battle. She becomes more dignified and queen like again and therefore “And I am all forgotten” (1.3.91) Cleopatra in a short space of time, changes mood dramatically, from being playful, angry and unloving to a dignified queen. This infers that the infinite variety within her can vary at any time depending on the situation she is put in.
On the other hand, Cleopatra can be genuine about her feelings as we see towards the end of play when she commits suicide to be with her ‘beloved Antony’. Although Cleopatra plays childish games, she is devoted to Anthony. When the messenger comes from Rome she is worried he will go back to his wife. She finds all her fulfilment in the relationship with Antony, doesn’t want him to go and would do anything to lure him in.
“I would I had thy inches, thou should know / There were a heart in Egypt” (1.2.40-41). This may represents two things, her love for Antony and the fact that she is all Egypt.
This is starkly contrasted with her behaviour at the beginning of the play when she only tormented him, took him for granted and played mind games with him. Even in the beginning of the play Cleopatra plays games with Antony. She wants to know how much he loves her when she already knows this.
“If it be love indeed, tell me how much”(1.1.14)
The ‘if’ part of what Cleopatra says infers that she is playful, she wants to know how much he loves her, but she will not let him know what she feels for Antony. Cleopatra sets Antony back when he says he loves her by saying that she will set limits on how far to be loved. Cleopatra here is playing games with Antony’s feelings about her. This may be because she hates not being in control of a situation and the only way she can control it is by playing with Antony’s feelings and having a very strong hold of Antony.
Cleopatra also plays games further on in the play, by sending a message to Antony that she has committed suicide. Charmian takes the news to Antony and came up with the idea. “Lock yourself and send him word that you are dead” (4.13.5)
However Cleopatra is hiding in her monument so that it looks like that she has committed suicide. She wants Antony to feel guilty because he called her a “foul Egyptian” and he accused her responsible for the war they had lost. This works because Antony does feel guilty and does the same and kills himself. She wants to know how Antony has reacted to her death so she tells Charmian to tell the news and report back on how he reacted.
“Bring me how he takes my death!” (4.13.10). Cleopatra here is still playing games with Antony so she can achieve what she wants.
The way Shakespeare uses snake imagery within the character Cleopatra, so that Cleopatra’s personality can be linked with snakes.
“Their slimy jaws; and as I draw them up, I’ll think them every one an Antony, and say ‘Aa Ha! Y’are caught!”. “Their slimy jaws” are inferred as snake’s jaws catching their prey. She sees many snakes and sees them as her prey, like her ‘beloved Antony’. She sees them all as her Antony. She loves the chase and catch of life, like she does with Antony. Cleopatra always uses snakes to her advantage. She even uses snakes to commit suicide at the end of the play.
“Come thou mortal wretch, Be angry and dispatch” (Act 5 scene 2)
At the end of the play she uses her considerable skills and charm to retain control of her country. When that fails she chooses death rather than humiliation.
Although Enobarbus’ speech about Cleopatra may be lyrical and hyperbolic and the reader may not believe his observation for many reasons, in the play there are many varieties in which are within Cleopatra. These include her use of playing games to get what she wants, how she is compared to snakes within the play, the way she loves drama and acting, her need to fill her satisfaction and the genuine side of Cleopatra, her true feelings for Antony. These varieties show that Cleopatra has infinite variety and she uses it accordingly when the time is appropriate. Sometimes these variations within her can bring out the vilest things in her which she does not realise she is doing until after the event like when she betrayed Antony. Cleopatra’s ‘Infinite Variety’ embodies the theme of change. The play has constant movement. The fortunes of the characters and countries shift continually. From finding out that Cleopatra has many variations of her personality, that Enobarbus’ observation of Cleopatra is an accurate one because she has infinite variety within her personality.