Unbreakable Antigone

684 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Reading on antigone the character

In the play Antigone, the character Antigone, chooses to obey the laws of the God's rather than the laws of man. Antigone risks everything, including her life, but her convictions are unwavering.

Antigone's beliefs were never conflicted. From the beginning of the play, the reader sees a steadfast woman, when Antigone tries to persuade Ismene to help bury Polynices. "Will you lift up his body with these bare hands / and lower it with me?" (52-53). Antigone is fully aware of the consequences (37-43) for such an action. Greek custom demands burial of a body and failure to comply risks retribution from the Gods. Antigone's allegiance to the Gods compels her to act and gain their favor. "I have longer / to please the dead than please the living here. / In the kingdom down below I'll lie forever" (88-90). However, despite being aware of the punishment for her crime, she believes execution is unlikely. "No one will ever convict me a traitor" (57). Antigone clearly believes the will of the people will overcome the will of the king. Her loyalty is bound to the laws of the God's, not to the laws of Thebes.

The chorus of elders knows Antigone and her father's legacy well. The chorus feels as if Antigone herself is still being punished for her father's inequities. "Your life's in ruins, child--I wonder... / do you pay for your father's terrible ordeal?" (945-946). While in captivity Antigone battles for the chorus' approval, she equates her plights to the story of Niobe (915-924). The chorus scorns Antigone for her comparisons to Niobe, a woman of god-like status (925-930). Despite the chorus' mockery,--after her comparisons to Niobe--Antigone delivers an impassione...

... middle of paper ...

...look, a new corpse rising before my eyes--(1420-1424).

Creon should have acknowledged a third loss (Antigone, Haemon and now Eurydice), but instead, he is grieved by ?a second loss.? It is clear from his words that Creon still believes that Antigone was best punished with death. The loss of Creon?s wife and son are tragic to the king. However, Creon never comments on Antigone?s death alone, only the death of Haemon and Eurydice.

Antigone was destined for destruction the moment Polynices died. She would not allow anything to come between her love for brother and for the God?s. In each scene where Antigone is present, her resolve is challenged, challenged by her friend Ismene, Creon and the chorus. Antigone is unwavering and is all the more defiant when confronted; she is insistent on doing the right things and nothing will break her volition.

Show More
Related

  • charant Character Changes in Sophocles' Antigone

    1452 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Comparing the Family in Antigone and A Rose for Emily

    994 Words  | 2 Pages

    Antigone is a young woman whose moral background leads her to go against the wishes of the king to bury her brother, Polyneices.  Sophocles uses Antigone as a character who undergoes an irreversible change in judgment and as a result, ends up dying.  Antigone is hero, and she stands for honor, and divinity.   Because Antigone's parents were Oedipus and Iacaste, she was born into a family of power; something that she could not change.  At times, Sophocles leads the reader into thinking Antigone wishes she was not who she was.  Ismene, Antigone's sister, refuses to help Antigone because (as she states) "I have no strength to break laws that wer...

    Read More

  • Sophocles' Antigone - Creon's Mistakes

    699 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the awe-inspiring play of Antigone, Sophocles introduces two remarkable characters, Antigone and Creon. A conflict between these two obstinate characters leads to fatal consequences for themselves and their kindred.  The firm stances of Creon and Antigone stem from two great imperatives: his loyalty to the state and her dedication to her family, her religion but most of all her conscience. The identity of the tragic hero of this play is still heavily debated.  This tragedy could have been prevented if it had not been for Creon's pitiful mistakes.

    Read More

  • Essay On Antigone Vs Human Law

    898 Words  | 2 Pages

    The play Antigone opens up with the dialogue of two sisters, Antigone and Ismene, with two completely different opinions. Antigone believes that as Polyneices' sisters, they are responsible for burying him properly, according to the god's rules. On the contrary, Ismene feels that they should not get involved, they are "women born, unapt to cope with men." (Sophacles, p.3) Antigone disregards this statement and still adamantly insists that they must bury him. She feels that by burying him, she will be following the gods, which is more important than following the ruler. As she says on page 3, “Loving and loved, I will lie by his (Polynices) side. Far longer is there need I satisfy those nether Powers, than powers on earth; for there for ever must I lie.” She believes that in afterlife she ...

    Read More

  • Creon's Death In Sophocles Antigone

    683 Words  | 2 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Antigone

    1762 Words  | 4 Pages

    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. He sees Polynices as an enemy to the state because he attacked his brother. Creon's first speech, which is dominated by words such as "authority” and "law”, shows the extent to which Creon fixates on government and law as the supreme authority. Between Antigone and Creon there can be no compromise—they both find absolute validity in the respective loyalties they uphold.

    Read More

  • Compare Antigone And The Bible

    762 Words  | 2 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • The Characters Of Antigone And King Creon

    1511 Words  | 4 Pages

    Antigone is a strong willed character who is not afraid to defend her beliefs. After learning that Creon has denied Polyneices of a proper burial she uses her free will to decide that she must lay her brother to rest, as she strongly believes he should be honored like the other fallen soldiers. Unable to

    Read More

  • Antigone

    650 Words  | 2 Pages

    Antigone is almost hailed to a god like status, as Oedipus was before her. She is extremely strong and unbelievably willing to sacrifice everything in the name of honor and pride. She so easily makes her decisions and chooses to die willingly without a second thought. The minute Creon questions her on breaking the law, she states: “Die I must, -I knew that well (how should I not?)-even without thy edicts.” What is even more is that Antigone was a woman, a woman in a time of extreme male domination. This makes her even stronger of a person in the play and shows the growing strength of the gender that we know of today.

    Read More

  • Pride In Sophocles Antigone

    803 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Antigone

    561 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Antigone is widely thought of as the tragic heroine of the play bearing her name. She would seem to fit the part in light of the fact that she dies doing what is right. Antigone buries her brother Polynices, but Creon does not like her doing that one bit. Creon says to Antigone, "Why did you try to bury your brother? I had forbidden it. You heard my edict. It was proclaimed throughout Thebes. You read my edict. It was posted up on the city walls." (Pg. 44) Antigone buries her brother without worrying about what might happen to her. By doing this, she takes into consideration death and other consequences for burying her brother. Antigone follows what she thinks is right according to the gods. She is the supporter of her actions in the burial of Polynices.

    Read More

  • Civil And Divine Law-antigone

    996 Words  | 2 Pages

    Antigone firmly believed that Divine law was far more superior to Civil Law in all respects. To her, the gods determined her fate completely. Obeying the gods was more crucial to obeying the government. "I know I am pleasing those I should please most." (Line 103) She chose to bury her brother Polynieces, though she knew that in doing so she would face her own certain death because King Creon forbid it. According to the Divine law, the dead need to have a proper burial in order to make the journey to the underworld. Antigone would not let her brother go without it. Antigone said of Creon, "It is not for him to keep me from my own." (Line 54) Antigone is proud of her acti...

    Read More

  • womenant Portrayal of Women in Sophocles' Antigone

    834 Words  | 2 Pages

    The sexist stereotypes presented in this tragedy address many perspectives of men at this time. Creon the arrogant and tyrant leader is, the very character that exemplifies this viewpoint. Antigone's spirit is filled with bravery, passion and fury; which allow her to symbolize the very essence of women. She is strong enough to do what her conscious tells her despite the laws of the land. Many examples in the play prove that Antigone's character is very capable of making her own decisions in the name of justice. First, Antigone opposes Creon's law and buries her slain brother; because in her mind it was immoral not to. She does this because she is compassionate and loves her brother very much. Creon, however, believes that his laws must be upheld and would do anything to prevent any type rebelling. He is even more infuriated when he learns that a woman has broken his laws. He tries to show Antigone who's in charge by sentencing her to a life of imprisonment. Secondly, Antigone shows how determined she is by accepting her consequences with pride. She does not try to hide that she is responsible for breaking Creon's laws, moreover, she takes all the credit. All the while she maintains her strength because she truly believes in her actions. These sorts of actions ultimately prove that Antigone is courageous and willing to stand up to men, which was completely against the norm at this time. Her spirit refuses to submit to the role of a helpless woman like her sister Ismene's character does.

    Read More

  • Antigone vs Lady Macbeth Essay

    712 Words  | 2 Pages

    Antigone shows throughout the play that she is always thinking that she must do what is best for other’s and not just herself. She is willing to do what is needed to follow the law of the gods, even if it is breaking the state law.... ... middle of paper ... ...

    Read More

  • The Immense Character Development in Antigone by Sophocles

    1542 Words  | 4 Pages

    ..., this sense of arrogance angers Creon to a point beyond belief. Antigone’s refusal to cooperate causes Creon to go mad with irritation and frustration. Wanting to show his sense of power, he refuses to back down in fear of losing his position. His stubbornness grows stronger as Antigone continues to disobey his commands. Antigone’s strong and steady foundation helps her show defiance. She is able to overcome the opinions of the people and commit to helping her brother regardless of the after effects. She ignores what everyone says and does only as she wants. She is powerful, both physically and mentally, and is successful in her tasks. Antigone matures into a commendable and respectable character in which she depicts her rebelliousness and bravery, pride and tolerance, and sense of moral righteousness to demonstrate fundamental character development in the play.

    Read More

More about Unbreakable Antigone

Open Document