Comparison between Eliot's parody and Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra The first major difference between Eliot's parody and Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra comes with the very first similarity. In Shakespeare's original the barge on which Cleopatra sits is compared to a burnished throne burning on the water, while in Eliot's parody it is just a chair which she fills like a throne, shining on the marble. Eliot's character thus appears much less "enormous" and larger than life than Shakespeare's portrayal of Cleopatra appearing very large, even in comparison to her barge, which she fills as if it were a throne - her majesty makes the barge seem tiny in comparison ; Eliot's character just makes a chair look like a chair. Once again, with the water upon which Cleopatra's barge floats burning, and the marble upon which the chair rests gleaming, Shakespeare's image, if much larger than that created by Eliot, is strange and in some mystical way, in contrast to the possible splendor of Eliot's chair. similarly, she has "pretty boys with dimples" fanning her, "like smiling cupids", while in the song from The Waste Land there are simply golden cupids, observing the scene, one peeking at her, another hiding his eyes behind his back. wing - instead of serving an immediate, but subtle purpose, as Cleopatra's are, by waving it. Other images of Eliot, in contrast, are much larger than those of Shakespeare, but once again manage to make Eliot's character seem small and insignificant in comparison. Eliot describes the enormous amount of ornamentation around the room, including its "phials of ivory and colored glass", which contain many perfumes, which are described as "drowning the senses in smells" and again it is the lack of subtlety. .. ... middle of paper ......speare tends to prefer the use of metaphor to that of simile - whereas Homer often used an extended simile to illustrate his point, and often went off on very distinct tangents, Shakespeare he tends to prefer the use of simile as a more modern construction of metaphor, rather than having to protect himself as an author with words like "as" or "as". Eliot may have chosen this passage for its eccentricities, and it manages to create a powerful and provocative parody, as well as because it forms a great contrast to other parts of The Wasteland, poetically, including the next part, which is more modern and simple. It is also interesting that Eliot chose to almost blend Shakespeare with other, more ordinary literary pieces: the passage begins with only slight changes to the words of Ahenobarbus' speech, but soon becomes noticeably different from the original Shakespeare..