Tragic Love as Excess over Duty and Honour in Anthony and Cleopatra

Abstract

Hence Cleopatra is depicted as a voluptuous, feminine other that unmans and undoes Anthony and proves to be his fall. And yet, one is brought to admire their peerless love, which indeed, somewhat immortal between the great Anthony and his grand seductress Cleopatra, their endings in death may imply ruin and failure but may also be read as an attempt to conquer fate, that is rather than suffer physical defeat, their suicides are their triumph over physical defeat, conquest and imprisonment. The grand and peerless nature of their love is thus celebrated even as Cleopatra proves to be the ruin of Anthony.