Antigone, by Sophocles, is a play that has three major themes. All three of these themes play a very important part in this play. The three major themes are fate, love, and pride. Oedipus had killed his father, king of Thebes, not knowing it was his father and then took over Thebes. He married Iocaste, queen of Thebes (his mother), and had four children; one was a girl named Antigone. When Oedipus had figured out who he was and what he had done he moved away and cut out his eyes.
Iocaste's cousin, Creon, had taken over as king of Thebes. He had made Oedipus' two sons, Eteocles and Polyneices, enemies of each other and they killed each other. Creon denied Polyneices proper burial because he was an enemy and that where this play begins.Fate is what had gotten the family of Oedipus where we begin this play. Fate is why Oedipus had killed his father, marry his mother, and then find out all about it. Fate then tortured Oedipus and he cut out his eyes. Fate had made Creon new king of Thebes and then have Oedipus' sons kill each other.
Antigone's fate was to die trying to honor her dead brother and be loyal her family. In the first paragraph of the play it reads, "My darling sister Ismene, we have had a fine inheritance from Oedipus. God has gone through the whole range of sufferings and piled them all on us, -grief upon grief, humiliation upon humiliation". This tells just how bad fate had treated the family of Oedipus. Creon's fate though was to lose all of his family and live the rest of his life knowing it was his entire fault.
In the end of the play Creon says, " Nobody else to share the blame. Just me... I killed you. I killed you my dear.Love is what had gotten Antigone in this problem. Her love for her brother was so great that she sacrificed her life for the respect that his deserved. Haemon's love for Antigone had made him kill himself when he found her dead body.
Creon's wife's love for Haemon had made her kill herself when she found out Haemon had killed himself. In the end because of all this Creon was the one that was denied love.Pride is what had gotten Creon in the mess that he was in. His pride was so great that he couldn't even admit that maybe he was wrong.
In the beginning of the play Creon is portrayed as King and a leader unwilling to bend the rules in order to protect the city. The way Creon responds to Antigone, “While I’m alive, no woman is going to lord over me”, shows he is stubborn and also his pride. (593-594) While the play continues Creon’s pride grows, and he thinks he can never be wrong and punishes Antigone by locking her up in a cave. However, things turn a different way when the Prophet tells Creon that he must free Antigone or face the wrath of Gods. After hearing this Creon changes his mind, “I shackled her, I’ll set her free myself. I am afraid it’s best to keep the established laws…” (1236-1238) But, as Creon tries to set Antigone free, he is faced with suicides of Antigone and Haemon, and followed by the suicide of his wife, Eurydice. This moment in the play serves as the downfall of Creon. But unlike Antigone, Creon reaches anagnorisis, which is the moment in the play when the tragic character realizes his hubris has led to his downfall. “And the guilt is all mine- can never be fixed…god help me, I admit all!”(1441-1445) Ultimately, Creon is more of a proper tragic character than Antigone because of he has an epiphany, a moment when he realizes his hubris has caused conflicts and deaths in the
...ut her son’s death, she goes and slits her throat. Creon then feels Antigone’s direct action when he is all alone at the end of the play. His edict caused so much pain in suffering for his family, he led them all to suicide.
In the Antigone, unlike the Oedipus Tyrannus, paradoxically, the hero who is left in agony at the end of the play is not the title role. Instead King Creon, the newly appointed and tyrannical ruler, is left all alone in his empty palace with his wife's corpse in his hands, having just seen the suicide of his son. However, despite this pitiable fate for the character, his actions and behavior earlier in the play leave the final scene evoking more satisfaction than pity at his torment. The way the martyr Antigone went against the King and the city of Thebes was not entirely honorable or without ulterior motives of fulfilling pious concerns but it is difficult to lose sight of the fact that this passionate and pious young woman was condemned to living imprisonment.
After being locked up in a dark, damp cave, Antigone was fed up with wallowing in her own pity, and takes her own life by “hang[ing] by the neck in a fine linen noose, strangled in her veils,” (1347–1348). Seeing the graceful young woman embraced in the arms of his own son, Creon immediately swells with anger towards un-masculine Haemon because of his display of love, and the significance of Antigone’s death goes straight over his head. Her strong sense of self – knowing who she is, what she values, and what makes her happy – enables her to make regretless decisions that alter her time to come. One of those decisions instigated Haemon’s fate to be sealed as well, prompting Eurydice, mother of the prince, to join her son in the underworld. Not long after becoming aware of her child’s downfall, Eurydice sacrifices her life at the heart of the palace, and “raised a cry for the noble fate of Megareus, the hero killed in the first assault, then for Haemon, then with her dying breath she called down torments on [Creon’s] head–[Creon] killed her sons,” (1429–1432). Creon’s heart fills with grief, for the fault of these three deaths lies with him, and pathetic self-pities are the only thoughts running through his mind. Despite the three-deceased’s blood lying
The Themes of Antigone and Oedipus Antigone and Oedipus, written by Sophocles, are dramatic plays with a tragic ending. The main theme for Antigone is that people sometimes have to learn the hard way from their mistakes. This theme is expressed in the final four lines of the play. They read, There is no happiness where there is no wisdom; No wisdom but in submission to the gods. Big words are always punished, and proud men of old age learn to be wise.
Antigone is a play about the tension caused when two individuals have conflicting claims regarding law. In this case, the moral superiority of the laws of the city, represented by Creon, and the laws of the gods, represented bt Antigone. In contrast, Oedipus The King is driven by the tensions within Oedipus himself. That play both begins and concludes within the public domain, the plot being driven by the plague that troubles the city, and which is so graphically brought to life by the Priest. In both Antigone (ll179-82) and Oedipus The King (ll29-31) the city is likened to a storm tossed ship, and it cannot be merely coincidence that Oedipus The King was written at the beginning of the Peloponnesian War, a time when Athens itself was suffering the effects of plague. Oedipus The King reaches its climax with a now blinded Oedipus daring to show himself to the people of Thebes, forgetting that he is no longer the leader of the state. In Antigone, it is Creons abuse of absolute power that leads to his tragic downfall. Whilst Oedipus determinedly tried to get to the root of his peoples ills, ultimately discovering that he was in fact the cause of them, Creon morphs from a supposedly caring leader into a tyrannical despot, eager to take the law into his own hands. It is the actions of Antigone that helps to bring about Creons fall from grace, as her steadfast refusal to accept th...
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
He anxiously awaits the day when he can call Antigone his wife, but because she defies King Creon, she deprives him of that opportunity. At first, Haemon tries to be loyal to his father. He tells Creon that he supports his decision to execute Antigone. However, as the conversation continues, he reveals that the community members are starting to renounce Creon’s decision. As the pain of potentially losing his fiancé becomes too much, he also renounces his father’s decision, arguing that the Gods would not condone it. In an act against his father, Haemon hurries to the cave Antigone was exiled to, in hopes to save her, but instead finds her hanging from the veil she was supposed to wear on her wedding day. Instantly overwhelmed with grief, Haemon, “[bewails] the loss of his bride” (Sophocles 152). Similarly, to Ismene’s case, Haemon cannot picture himself living on Earth without Antigone by his side, and commits suicide. In Antigone’s desire to appease the Gods, she abandons her loved ones, and causes them great suffering. This could have been avoided has she not pursued her desire to bury
In conclusion, the gods and the love of her family rule Antigone’s life. Creon’s life is ruled by what he thinks is good for his country and pride. Creon did not change his mind to free Antigone until a prophet told him he would suffer horribly for his actions. However, because Creon was so stubborn for so long and did not take heed to anyone’s advice sooner, he ultimately suffers in the end, as does everyone else in the play. This was all due to a man’s lack of good judgment, his selfish pride and his stubbornness.
Antigone was caught and death was the price to pay as ordered by Creon, not to her surprise. Death to Antigone seemed wanted, it was the only thing left as honor for her. Haemon, the son of Creon and Antigone’s fiancé has enough respect for his father that he does not interfere with Creon's decision to put Antigone to death.
Continuing on his way, Oedipus found Thebes plagued by the Sphinx, who put a riddle to all passersby and destroyed those who could not answer. Oedipus solved the riddle, and the Sphinx killed herself. In reward, he received the throne of Thebes and the hand of the widowed queen, his mother, Jocasta. They had four children: Eteocles, Polyneices, Antigone, and Ismene. Later, when the truth became known, Jocasta committed suicide, and Oedipus, after blinding himself, went into exile, leaving his brother-in-law Creon as regent. The central theme in this work is that one cannot control his/her fate, whether the intentions are good or bad. Oedipus, the main character in this play is motivated to find the truth, and his intentions are good. The motivation is always followed by the intentions, just as the truth is followed by goodness. There are three critical parts to Oedipus's motivation. There is the prophecy, the realization, and the revelation. They will be discussed consecutively.
Both characters were born into a very noble family. They were at the top of society, and had a perfect life, or so it seemed. Their flaws led them to experience tragic downfalls. With Antigone, her stubbornness, led her to be sentenced to death by Creon. Oedipus was too arrogant to believe in the prophecy against him, and he ended up fulfilling it. Then these tragic downfalls lead to the death, or serious injuries. Antigone committed suicide to avoid being killed by Creon. Oedipus blinded himself by stabbing out his own eyes because he was so angry with himself for fulfilling the prophecy. Therefore, both Antigone and Oedipus lived their lives as tragic heroes. The plays Antigone and Oedipus Rex have some major differences, but they have one similarity that ties their main characters together, which is them both being born tragic heroes. The differences between the characters is their flaws, and good characteristics. Though Antigone and Oedipus lived completely different lives, both their lives ended in a very tragic
Antigone causes the death of three people, whether directly or indirectly. First of all, she directly causes her own death because she hangs herself, rather than starving to death inside the sealed up tomb the Creon had her put into. Second, she directly causes the death of Haemon because he loved her and truly cared for her and her did not want to live without her. Lastly, Antigone indirectly causes Eurydice, Haemon’s mother and Creon’s wife, to kill herself when Eurydice learns that Haemon killed himself. “Thy wife, [Creon,] the mother—mother of the dead—is, by a blow just fallen, haplessly slain.” This shows that Eurydice was mad enough to kill her, because many thing have happened to her, the death of her son, her husband’s excessive pride, etc. She also knew he and his pride was the cause of this mess.
Antigone if she is caught. As the play moves on there is a building of this fear and pity that is felt for many of the characters that finally is resolved at the catastrophe. At that point the reader learns that Creon, the king, has lost his wife, his son, and his niece Antigone, all because he was too stubborn to give in as well as to afraid that if he did give in that he would be judged as an easy king. In a way this ending brings the two emotions together. The reader feels pity for Creon because of his great loss, but at the same time he feels a bit of fear because he wouldn’t want this type of tragedy to ever occur in his life.
In his tragic trilogy, The Theban Plays, Sophocles portrays the essence of Ancient Greek life; their culture, politics, religion and the maxims that are intended to guide their daily life through the actions of the main characters, Oedipus, Creon, and Antigone. Sophocles employs the use of thematic structures that coherently affects each character uniquely, and one of the most common themes depicted in these plays is that of fate vs freewill. In the Theban trilogy, Sophocles uses a well-structured theme of fate vs freewill to establish the relationship between the Greeks and the gods, as well as to illustrate the limits of mortality.