"Caesar and Cleopatra" : Questions for Discussion

Interpretive Questions

Which Prologue do you prefer? Could you envisage the play produced with both of them?

Why does Cleopatra cry of "sob of relief" at the end of Act I (p.82) when she realizes she's been speaking with Caesar himself?

Why does Caesar rebuke the Egyptian courtiers and Lucius Septimius (p.95) for the murder of Pompey?

Apollodorus says (p. 110) that his motto is "Art for art's sake." Does his character seem out of place in this play? What is the significance of his line "Who says artist, says duelist" (p. 115). What about of his songs "My heart, my heart spread out thy wings/Shake off thy heavy load of love" and "My heart, my heart, be whole and free/Love is thine only enemy" and "Aloft aloft, behold the blue/That never shone in women's eyes" on pp. 120-126?

After Cleopatra has been smuggled out of the palace to the lighthouse in a carpet by Apollodorus, why does Caesar say he is glad, but describes Rufio as "very angry" and Britannus as "shocked." (p. 128).

Cleopatra tells Pothinus (p. 137, Act IV) "We are all Caesar's slaves -- all we in this land of Egypt -- whether we will or no. And she who is wise enough to know this will reign when Caesar departs." How does this jibe with the ending of the play?

In Act IV Caesar and Cleopatra indulge in a fantasy with Apollodorus (p. 149) about establishing a kingdom at the source of the Nile, which leads to a sphinx being consulted. What is the significance of this interlude?

Why does Cleopatra have Ftatateeta kill Pothinus?

Why does Rufio kill Ftatateeta?

Is the news of Ptolemy's death ("the little King Ptolemy was drowned," p. 162) intentionally meant to lack dramatic impact?

Caesar (p. 167) explains why he supports Rufio's action because it was done with dispatch and without lengthy legal process. Do you agree or disagree with Caesar?

Why does Cleopatra laugh (p. 167) when Caesar mispronounces Ftatateeta's name (and not for the first time!)?

Why does Caesar promise at the end of the play (p. 168) to send Mark Antony to Alexandria?

Is Cleopatra's swooning reaction to this a satisfactory ending to the play?

Evaluative Questions

How does Shaw characterize Caesar's relationship with Cleopatra? Is it that of parent to child? Teacher to student? Lover to lover? Does it change during the course of the play?

If Shaw's Caesar is notable for his clemency (e.g, he throws the letters of treachery against him into the sea, and he is revolted by the news of Pompey's murder), how do you account for his endorsement of Rufio's summary justice to Ftatateeta (calling it a "natural slaying" in which he feels "no horror" -- p. 167). What is Shaw's final assessment of Caesar's leadership skills?

Does Shaw's editorializing in his stage directions serve a worthwhile purpose? (cf. pp. 60, 83, 91, "anticipating a later statesman", 105)

Why does Shaw title the play "Caesar and Cleopatra : A History"?

For Textual Analysis

The Prologue (pp. 55 to 60)

Pages 71 to 72, Caesar's soliloquy to the Sphinx

Pages 155 to 57, Caesar's speech beginning, "If one man in the world can be found ... "and ending with "... looks his fate in the face."

Pages 165 to 167, dialogue between Cleopatra and Caesar, beginning, "Has Cleopatra no part in this leavetaking" to "Have I not made a woman of you after all"?

"G.B.S."

There's a famous cartoon by E. Reed that depicts a giant Bernard Shaw standing alongside a much smaller William Shakespeare. They are both pointing towards a pedestal bearing the words "Man and Superman," one of Shaw's best-known plays. The pedestal rests on a base labeled "All the World's a Stage Society." The latter alludes of course to Jacque's line from "As You Like It," and my take on the cartoon is that it implies Shaw surpasses Shakespeare as the master playwright of the English stage.

Shaw began writing "Caesar and Cleopatra" in 1898, but nine years passed before a full production was performed in England. The play was actually published before that production, in a volume entitled Three Plays for Puritans with two other Shaw plays, "The Devil's Disciple" and "Brassbound's Conversion." Shaw himself wrote an informative preface about each of the plays, which you can read in an electronic book version of the 1906 edition of Three Plays for Puritans by clicking here. Note that Shaw's own title for this preface to "Caesar and Cleopatra" is "Better than Shakespear." Does Shaw mean to corroborate the above-mentioned view of his lofty stature among playwrights? (Whether he did or not, I am at a loss to explain why Shaw dropped the final "e" in Shakespeare.)

Shaw once wrote of his life, "Things have not happened to me; on the contrary it is I who have happened to them; and all my happenings have taken the form of books and plays. Read them, or spectate them; And you have my whole story : the rest is only breakfast, lunch, dinner, sleeping, wakening and washing, my routine being just the same as everyone's routine."
[Quoted in Peters, Sally, Bernard Shaw: The Ascent of the Superman (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996), p. ix].