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Antigone by sophocles
Antigone by sophocles
Antigone analytical essay
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Antigone, is a play written in 441 B.C. Set in the town of Thebes, two opposing sides fight for what they believe is right. The play illustrates a battle between brothers that results in death. The brothers, Polyneices and Eteocles kill each other, with their own bare hands while battling over who will be the next King of Thebes. This leads to the main conflict of the play which centers around the distinction between law and moral justice. In this prominent interpretation of Greek tragedy, the reigning King of Thebes, King Creon makes it known that Polyneices is a traitor and will be not be buried, he will be left in the field for the vultures. Whereas the brother Eteocles will receive a proper burial. Their sister Antigone is not okay with
Antigone, a story written by Sophocles, is about a young woman, Antigone, choosing whether she will not bury her brother, Polyneices, to not break the law or disobey Creon’s law and bury him; however choosing to bury her brother does not derail her moral development.
basically serves as a building block to her being admirable. Certain examples through out the play
In Sophocles' Greek tragedy, Antigone, two characters undergo character changes. During the play the audience sees these two characters' attitudes change from close-minded to open-minded. It is their close-minded, stubborn attitudes, which lead to their decline in the play, and ultimately to a series of deaths. In the beginning Antigone is a close minded character who later becomes open minded. After the death of her brothers, Eteocles and Polyneices, Creon becomes the ruler of Thebes. He decides that Eteocles will receive a funeral with military honors because he fought for his country. However, Polyneices, who broke his exile to " spill the blood of his father and sell his own people into slavery", will have no burial. Antigone disagrees with Creon's unjust actions and says, " Creon is not strong enough to stand in my way." She vows to bury her brother so that his soul may gain the peace of the underworld. Antigone is torn between the law placed against burying her brother and her own thoughts of doing what she feels should be done for her family. Her intent is simply to give her brother, Polyneices, a proper burial so that she will follow "the laws of the gods." Antigone knows that she is in danger of being killed for her actions and she says, "I say that this crime is holy: I shall lie down with him in death, and I shall be as dear to him as he to me." Her own laws, or morals, drive her to break Creon's law placed against Polyneices burial. Even after she realizes that she will have to bury Polyneices without the help of her sister, Ismene, she says: Go away, Ismene: I shall be hating you soon, and the dead will too, For your words are hateful. Leave me my foolish plan: I am not afraid of the danger; if it means death, It will not be the worst of deaths-death without honor. Here Ismene is trying to reason with Antigone by saying that she cannot disobey the law because of the consequences. Antigone is close-minded when she immediately tells her to go away and refuses to listen to her. Later in the play, Antigone is sorrowful for her actions and the consequences yet she is not regretful for her crime. She says her crime is just, yet she does regret being forced to commit it.
In the play, Antigone, two brothers are killed in battle. One of them, Polyneices, is considered to be a rebel by the new ruler of Thebes, Creon. The corrupt and prideful king, Creon, created an edict that states that nobody could bury Polynices’s body because he was a traitor to Thebes and his family and denies the sanctification and burial of Polyneices's body because of his rebellion and intends to leave him to become the meal of wild animals. Polyneices's sister, Antigone, defies Creon by giving her brother a proper burial, no matter the consequences. Both King and Antigone sought to do what they thought was the right thing to do, even if it was against the law. Though King and Antigone are two completely different people from two completely different times, they were actually quite similar in that they both were minorities at a disadvantage, and lacking power and credibility among those in control. King and Antigone both fought for injustice and what they believed in, however, not necessarily in the same
Additionally, Creon was certain that nobody would disobey him, as we see on page 10, and was shocked to hear that somebody buried Polynices, as he says; “What say you? What man dared to do it?” Creon truly believed that everyone would comply, which explains why the punishment is so harsh. However, when Antigone performed the unseen, how could he go back on his word and be looked at as dishonest and biased towards family members?
The opening events of the play Antigone, written by Sophocles, quickly establish the central conflict between Antigone and Creon. Creon has decreed that the traitor Polynices, who tried to burn down the temple of gods in Thebes, must not be given proper burial. Antigone is the only one who will speak against this decree and insists on the sacredness of family and a symbolic burial for her brother. Whereas Antigone sees no validity in a law that disregards the duty family members owe one another, Creon's point of view is exactly opposite. He has no use for anyone who places private ties above the common good, as he proclaims firmly to the Chorus and the audience as he revels in his victory over Polynices.
Antigone, as a character, is extremely strong-willed and loyal to her faith. Creon is similarly loyal, but rather to his homeland, the city of Thebes, instead of the gods. Both characters are dedicated to a fault, a certain stubbornness that effectively blinds them from the repercussions of their actions. Preceding the story, Antigone has been left to deal with the burden of her parents’ and both her brothers’ deaths. Merely a young child, intense grief is to be expected; however, Antigone’s emotional state is portrayed as frivolous when it leads her to directly disobey Creon’s orders. She buries her brother Polynices because of her obedience to family and to the gods, claiming to follow “the gods’ unfailing, unwritten laws” (Sophocles 456-457). CONTINUE
In the play Antigone, Sophocles writing can be very controversial. He explains different perspectives of justice through the fates of the characters in the play. Creon and Antigone both would claim to have the law and Gods on their sides. They bring acceptable evidence for their reasoning to be true for their thought of the right way to carry out justice. Creon is certain that his ability to be king will justify leaving Polynices unburied. On the other hand Antigone sees justice as the ability to bury her brother. Conflict explodes with their inability to compromise over what is the definition of justice. Justice has a different role to play in any individual’s life because gender differs from man to women and society sometimes looks down upon women. Justice should be served and women should have the same divine rights that men do.
Glorified overeating. Two words that together create the ultimate oxymoron, in a society obsessed with body image. Adam Richman, the host of the popular television program Man v. Food, is showing his viewers the sport in eating. Each episode this attractive and far from obese man eats a humanly impossible quantity of food. The feat quickly escalates into a spectacle, with chanting fans and opponents salted and deep-fried. The spectacle of overeating has been transformed into a sport and one celebrated by the media.
This play, Antigone, was titled after one of the play’s main characters; however, the title could have been “Creon”, due to Creon’s influence throughout the play. Creon was a major influence to the play’s plot as it involves Creon within a majority of the scenes, from beginning to end. Throughout the play Creon’s tragic countdown is expressed, beginning with him as king of Thebes to the death of his beloved family. Antigone is merely portrayed as a rebellious nephew, as she consistently defies Creon. Antigone is expressed within the play consistently; however, the play portrays decisions proclaimed by Creon, which displays Creon’s tragic flow. Being titled “Antigone”, does not accurately express the play’s content as Creon’s tragic fate is actually being described and represented.
Antigone is part of the three Theban plays, written by Sophocles in the fifth century BC, which dramatize the ruin of the family of Oedipus. The play begins in Thebes after a civil war between Oedipus’ two sons, Eteocles and Polynices. The two brothers died in each other’s hands, and their uncle Creon took the throne. Creon’s first decree is that the body of Polynices, who fought against the Thebans, is to be left unburied. In Greek thought, a soul must be buried in order to be sent into the underworld.
Antigone is a play about a woman who disobeyed the King's order to not bury her brother. The play was written by the famous Greek tragedian, Sophocles, in 441 B.C. The story took place in the city of Thebes and the time period is not mentioned. The main characters introduced in the play are of Antigone, Ismene, Creon, and Haemon. The primary focus was centered on Antigone and the consequences she faces after breaking the King's orders.
Within two classical works of philosophical literature, notions of justice are presented plainly. Plato’s The Republic and Sophocles’ Antigone both address elements of death, tyranny and immorality, morality, and societal roles. These topics are important elements when addressing justice, whether in the societal representation or personal representation.
In the play Antigone written by Sophocles the main theme apparent in the play was law. The theme of law leads into the extensive subject of the Ancient Greek society mainly to do with the law and city-states. The city-states held an important role in the Greek society; they held their own government and the citizens thought of themselves as from their city-states not from Greece. The law of the Greeks dictated most everything they did.
Before comparing these two pieces of works, the definition of justice is needed to address the question as fully as possible. Justice is a concept which involves fair and ethical treatment for everyone. It is usually seen as the continued effort to do what is right. In most cases this is done by making use of logic. This is the premise which is going to be used for justice when comparing the two works. Sophocles’ Antigone differs largely from Ibsen’s A Doll’s House since they were written in different centuries and different cultures, but at the same time both works share similarities. Ibsen does not identify a direct problem and he chooses to develop his characters and the problem as the play unfolds. Sophocles begins Antigone with a challenge directed at the power of the king. This directly identifies a problem and source of tension from the start of the play in contrast to Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. Tensions arise in both works when the female protagonists disobey laws which they find contradictory to their values and beliefs. The protagonists stand by their beliefs throughout unlike their counter parts who continue to change their beliefs.