In the majority of Shakespeare's tragedies the protagonist will have a fatal flaw which inevitably leads to their demise. With Antony and Cleopatra being a tragedy this characteristic of a tragedy can be seen here as well. For throughout the play we can see his down fall stemming from his flaw - his fixation with Cleopatra.

To the lead up to Act III we see Shakespeare use the other characters in the play, especially Enobarbus, to describe to the audience how the man Antony once was, `a stag' and a `brave Antony'. But as Philo states at the beginning of the play, to the audience Antony shows himself to simply be `The triple pillar of the world transformed into a strumpet's fool' throughout the play and it is in Act III that this is emphasised.

In Act III we see the lead up to and the war between...