A Tragic Situation

Tragedy is a description of an event that evokes a sympathetic feeling of emotion by the audience. The events involve people emotionally who were not involved in the situation physically. In the story of Antigone, Sophecles forces the audience to take pity on the poor girl’s situation. This story impacts the audience in such a way that the audience becomes emotionally enthralled in the plot of the story. All of Steiner’s, “Principle constants of conflict in the condition of man,” (360) were present in the tragic tale of Antigone. The conflicts confirm a tragic sense about the story. In a tragedy drama is experienced and the characters typically suffer extremely. Consequently, this can happen because of a tragic mistake.

The first of the ageless conflicts of man is, “the confrontation of men and women” (360). This principle is applied in the conflict between Antigone and Creon. Antigone broke a law that her uncle, Creon, had created. As a result of this she was to be killed. Sympathy is felt for Antigone because she was punished for take a stand for what she believed to be the right thing. Unfortunately the risk she took was going against her uncle Creon, who so happened to have power over her. It was a tragic situation that Antigone was to be killed for such a ridiculous crime. Although Antigone should not have been punished for that law she had broken, she was willing to accept her death sentence. She said to Creon, “These laws- I was not about to break them, not out of fear of some man’s wounded pride, and face the retribution of the gods. Die I must, I’ve known it all my life- how could I keep from knowing? - Even without your death-sentence ringing in my ears. And if I am to die before my time I consider that a gain. Who on earth alive in the midst of so much grief as I, could fail to find this death a rich reward?” (374) Antigone was willing to risk her own life for the sake of her dead brother’s pride. Creon wants Antigone to know that he has control over her. She defied him and now he has no choice but to punish her. Otherwise it would mean a bruise on his reputation as a ruler. It would prove that he was of weak character, especially since a girl went against him. Creon said, “This girl was an old hand at insolence when she overrode the edicts we made public. But once she’d done it- the insolence, twice over- to glory in it, laughing, mocking us to...

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...’s blood, feed their lust, their fury?- Feed their fury!- Law is law!- Let all go well.”(307) Clytemnestra killed her husband upon his return from the battle of Troy. She was so heartbroken that he had killed her daughter. The tragedy in this story is almost the same as that of Antigone. Death follows another death. Iphigenia was sacrificed by her father. He was killed for killing her and so was his mistress. Since Clytemnestra killed the two people she was sentenced to death. The tragedy is death.

In the beginning of the story of Antigone the audience is forced to feel sorrow for Antigone. Towards the end they began to feel sympathy for Creon as well. His display of moral weakness was the cause of three unnecessary deaths. The story of Antigone and Clytemnestra were different because the Antigone was the innocent party in the story. Clytemnestra may appear innocent to the audience but to the people in the story she was a murderess. Tragedy plays a large role in these two plays. An emotion of sorrow is felt by the audience. The characters of the plays go through terrible situations. Tragedy makes the stories more appealing to the audience because they become emotionally involved.