Gender Roles In Antigone

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n societies throughout history, males and females had proper roles and behaviors that were expected to be followed. In Ancient greece, Men were the dominant figure in public life in which they engaged in politics and business. In contrast, Women were kept in their homes to sew clothing, cook and raise children. They also were not allowed to leave their home without being accompanied by their guardian which usually was either their father, husband or son. Additionally, men and women were expected to follow decisions about arranged marriages that were ordered by their fathers. The discussion of gender roles in the play Antigone, written by Sophocles fuels different arguments between Creon and Haemon. Creon believes that women are inferior to men and that they should obey every order from men. Although, his son, Haemon fights against his father patriarchy and …show more content…

In particular, he vows to punish anyone who tries to bury the trader’s body, Polyneices, will be punished. However, Antigone ignored this threat and decides to bury her beloved brother regardless of the punishment. She is caught and is sentenced to death however, her fiance, Haemon tries to plea to his father for Antigone’s life. In effort to debate his son's opinion, Creon explicitly says that ignoring antigone’s disobedience would allow a woman to defeat him. For example, Creon describes the disobedience, “So I must guard the men who yield to order, not let myself be beaten by a woman. Better if it must happen , that a man should overset me. I won’t be called weaker than womankind,” (Sophocles 676-80). This shows his belief that women are weaker and inferior to men. Creon hints at the fact this is not normal behavior for a women and is also why Antigone is punished. He also reinforces the idea that men were in control of women and how it is typical behavior for women to follow the

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