Page "Antony and Cleopatra" Paragraph 80

For Rome to “ melt is for it to lose its defining shape, the boundary that contains its civic and military codes.

This schema is important in understanding Antony ’ s grand failure because the Roman container can no longer outline or define him — even to himself.

Conversely we come to understand Cleopatra in that the container of her mortality can no longer restrain her.

Unlike Antony whose container melts, she gains a sublimity being released into the air.