Antigone And Haemon Case Study

Antigone and Haemon; fiancé or cousin? Antigone, the product of incest between her mother Jocasta and father Oedipus, is now faced with the fact that she may have to keep the tradition going with the marriage of her first cousin, Haemon. The difference is that they both know they are related, something her parents did not know until it was too late. Antigone is scheduled to wed, but that may cost her a lot in return. Antigone must evaluate her life and reason with herself if she should marry Haemon or decide another way out. Antigone finds a way out, but it may not be visible to the reader right away. Antigone commits a crime and is sentenced to die, justifying in her mind that is the only option.

Antigone does not want to continue in the life cycle she has been born into and the only way out is in her death. She also truly believes in the Gods and that by dying a martyr, she will gain kleos. Antigone doesn’t want to marry Haemon and therefore, plots her own death. She does this by committing a crime punishable by death, making a fool out of her uncle and ultimately, committing her own death by way of hanging.

Antigone knows two things when she is sent to the cave; that she isn’t going to die a martyr and that Haemon will come and rescue her; neither are what she wants in the end. She has time to reflect on both of those things. She can’t become a martyr because unless Haemon comes and rescues her, she is going to starve to death; to be a martyr, you need to be killed. Haemon will absolutely come and try and rescue her; he is in fact in love with Antigone and will do anything to help rescue her. So, that leads to what happens at that point. If he rescues her, they can’t go back to Thebes. She would have to go with him somewhere and marriage would be inevitable in her mind. This is too much for her to take and that is why she hangs herself. She ultimately didn’t want to marry her cousin and whether right or wrong, this was her way