ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the representation of two different types of women in Kubrick’s Spartacus (1960), informed by but differing from the women in Howard Fast’s source novel and Starz channel’s Spartacus (2010–13). Elite Roman women Helena and Claudia appear in only one scene of the film where gladiators are chosen and fight to the death for their amusement. Their cruelty and lack of empathy are contrasted to the slave woman Varinia, who shows real emotion and concern for her fellow slaves fighting for their lives. In her discussion, Potter comparatively analyses the characterization of these two types of women, pointing to the position of the male and female gaze and how this shapes our understanding of Kubrick’s film, as well as the later series. The elite women in Spartacus (1960) are denied any backstory and can be seen as stereotypical morally corrupt Romans, while their counterparts Lucretia and Ilithyia are fully rounded characters. Also, while Varinia is ultimately denied her own potential as a freedom-fighting rebel and is domesticated as a wife and mother in Spartacus (1960), slave women in Spartacus: Blood and Sand are able to move beyond victimhood and subservience to become women with agency.
