ABSTRACT
Antony and Cleopatra are different—they are, for a start, older, and, one might have thought, wiser. And one of them indeed takes her life intentionally, while the other throws his life away in what may well appear to be a useless cause. He also throws away his career through his love for Cleopatra. Antony and Cleopatra provides, Krohn writes, "a unique opportunity to see how Shakespeare perceived and portrayed the tensions of an established love". The relationship is portrayed as fated, so that although they try to honour their commitment to each other, it is threatened by external events that appear to be the cause of the destruction of their love. The internal struggle within Antony is seen, as Krohn observes, at the point where he is told of his wife Fulvia's death. For the moment he feels guilty, and appears to intend ending the relationship with Cleopatra.
