Love and Social Conflict in Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra and Jyoti Prasad Agarwala’s Karengor Ligiri: A Comparative Exploration

Abstract

This article examines the interplay of romantic love and social/political conflict in William Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra (c. 1606–1607) and Jyoti Prasad Agarwala’s Karengor Ligiri (1937, also spelled Karengar Ligiri). Both plays portray love as a transformative yet disruptive force that collides with societal expectations, duty, class structures, and political imperatives. In Shakespeare’s tragedy, the passionate affair between Mark Antony and Cleopatra challenges Roman imperial duty and East-West cultural divides. In Agarwala’s Assamese drama, Prince Sundar Kunwar’s revolutionary ideals and affection for the palace maid Sewali clash with feudal class hierarchies and traditional marriage norms in a medieval Ahom-inspired setting. Through close textual analysis, this study highlights how both dramatists use love to critique rigid social orders while underscoring the tragic costs of individual desire against collective norms.