Antigone's Role In Tragedy

Another role this conflict plays in tragedy is one that creates tension in the oikos, as Creon is Antigone’s uncle he is the ruler of the household so he has control over Antigone. Antigone is a very extreme believer of her oikos which was a role given to women in the Athenian age as she gives loyalty to her family and nothing else. She will do anything for her family, which makes her ignore laws of state, values of the city; she is not simply rebellious to Thebes but she is also a member of the family. “These laws-i was not about to break them, not out of fear of some man’s wounded pride, and face the retribution of gods. Die I must, I’ve known it all my life-…But if I had allowed my own mother’s son to rot, an unburied corpse-that would have

been agony!” Antigone does break the law of the state and can be seen as a criminal but she does it out of loyalty. Indicting how Antigone is an early example of civil disobedience.

Her view is only one-sided as she only sees herself to be correct which is exactly the same as Creon who also believes his law is the right one to follow. “Bernard Knox finds in these words of Antigone allusions to customs and beliefs “older than the polis”. Her reverence for the family dead and her belief in their continued existence seem to have belonged to the earliest religion known to man…[Creon’s] prohibition against funeral rites for Polyneikes is not a violation of an individual conscience-Antigone’s-but an “age-old practice or custom,”…Antigone then pitied against the polis, is seen to represent ancient-perhaps even mesolthic-practices and beliefs that Kreon can neither understand not integrate into his political view as…’tyrant’.” However, Creon even though he is the new king, he has full authority over the city and its people and he will do anything to convey that whatever he says goes. “What? The city is the king’s-that’s the law!” Creon’s sense of justice is flawed and he ends up being a dictator if everyone behaves like him. Even though he does not want to he has to be against Antigone as she has gone against everything the state believes and sentences her to a

punishment. But for Creon he knows that what he has done will bring consequences so he tries to change his course of action so that does not happen.
Creon’s conversation with Tiresias makes him realise how wrong he was and that he will be punished by the gods for taking their role into his own hands.

Creon has “no business with the dead, nor do the gods above-this is violence you have forced upon the heavens.” Creon’s error is two-fold as he buried someone alive who was Antigone and he left someone dead unburied. It is important that Polynices does get buried, as his flesh is being ripped apart by animals, which is inhumane. His soul will not reach the Greek afterlife and he is left in a limbo. Creon has just broken the laws of the gods he exerted influence in a godly realm. There are lots of Greek gods in Greek myths that are revengeful and these gods are going to take revenge and take their place back. Antigone’s last speech before she dies demonstrates how she does not fear her death but conveys to the audience and to the people of Thebes “What laws of the mighty gods have I transgressed?...if these men are wrong, let them suffer nothing worse than they mete out to me-these masters of injustice!” As Antigone went against state law and buried her brother she has to suffer the consequences of her actions, which is death. She has left it up to the gods to decide the punishment of Creon. She states, “A husband dead, there might have been another…But mother and father both lost in the halls of Death. No brother could ever spring to light again.” This portrays to the audience a cruel side to Antigone as she says that

she cannot experience all these things in her life thus she seems ungrateful and this could be because of her family dynamic. The curse of her family has been passed down to her and now because of conflict between justice systems she has to lose her life. Antigone seems extreme with us as she only worries about her oikos and how she can replenish it. So the roles that these conflicts play in Antigone is one that conveys how both these laws should be equally justified. Bonnie Honig claims Creon “learns his lesson, something that cannot be said for Antigone. Antigone mirrors Creon, but imperfectly. She represents the absolute imperative of mourning in opposition to Creon’s principle of justice…She does not deliberate or equivocate any more than Creon does. Both are sure of themselves; too sure she stands opposed to Creon’s edict, but unlike Creon, she ends where she begins, staunchly opposing her cause.” Creon can be seen as a tragic hero in Aristotle’s view as he has hamartia but, he also has anagnorisis to change his ways, which Antigone does not have.