Sympathy for the Main Character in Sophocles' Antigone

Sympathy for the Main Character in Sophocles' Antigone Sophocles' play is named after its main character, Antigone, and for

one the first times in Greek Tragedy it is a woman. In this play,

Antigone is clearly the protagonist, as she is showed in her grief,

seems sympathetic and the reader or spectator sees her from the

beginning; it creates more impact and draws attention to the extremity

of her feelings and emotions. Antigone also illustrates one of the

central themes of this tragedy, which is the position of women; she

upsets gender roles and hierarchy, and disturbs the fundamental rules

of her culture. She is also heroic and scarifies her life. All these

traits of character contribute to create sympathy for her and make her

stand out. Sophocles always presents her as a victim and thus she

benefits from a special status, which makes us readers, appreciate her

more than the other characters.

From the opening of the play Antigone appears in a difficult position,

she is outside the gates and shares with her sister Ismene all the

suffering she has to go through. Indeed, their family has been cursed

for generations and two simultaneous deaths just hit them, their

brothers have died in a war against each other. This implies that

Antigone's life is full of misery and provokes in the reader a

sentiment of pity for her. This is emphasised by the fact that one of

Antigone's brother cannot be buried and she will try to break the laws

to do it. She wants to honour her family, is stubborn and refuses to

give in to adversity under any circumstances, which is ...

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...oses to die instead of obeying state laws. It

highlights her unique personality and the fact that she is

individualist. Creon has indeed been punished for not understanding

the fine line between these two. Again, we are more attracted to her

side since we can more relate to her and her choice which is somehow

selfish but heroic and unfortunately fatal.

Thus, in this play, Sophocles attributing the role of both protagonist

tragic hero creates sympathy for his main character Antigone. Creon

flaws are even more stressed and Antigone's bravery admirable. The

contrast between them makes Antigone's human qualities stand out. The

audience cannot but feel sympathy for her and despite her death, she

somehow "triumphs" since she takes away with her Creon's son Heamon

and Eurydice and Creon ends up alone as a tyrannical leader.