Antigone is a complex, yet debatable play, written by Sophocles somewhere around 442 BC (Johnston). Chronologically, it is the third of the three Theban plays, but was the first and also one of the most famous tragedies ever to be written (Sophocles). The setting of the play is set in front of the Palace, Thebes, and Ancient Greece, though most Greek playwrights were from Athens, their plays are hardly ever set there. (Sophocles). It begins with the death of two brothers, Polyneices and Eteocles, each on opposing sides in Thebes ’civil war. They are both killed in battle fighting for the ruling throne. Creon, the king of Thebes, decides it should be Eteocles the one to be honored and Polyneices disgraced by improper burial. The punishment …show more content…
Although there are multiple interpretations as to what drove the play to a tragic end, one that can be viewed as a central conflict in Antigone, is arguably the struggle between the will of her self-reassurance and actions of morality.
The play opens with Antigone trying to convince her sister Ismene, during a secret meeting, to help her bury Polyneices ' body, abusing the king’s law as an act of morality and respect for her sibling. In other words, the text depicts Antigone as the rebellious sister making Ismene appear to be more in favor with the kings ruling. Therefore, Ismene, fearful of the death penalty by King Creon, refuses to help her sister and fails at convincing Antigone of abandoning her rebellious plan as well. As Ismene refuses to carryout out the crime, Antigone replies with “Let that be your excuse. I’m going now to make a burial mound for my dear brother” (Johnston 99-100). This is where morals are being portrayed as one would want a proper burial for the loss of a loved one. Antigone has that of a men’s physique despising her self-image and is stubborn towards accepting her girlhood. However, it is understood by the reader that Antigone had always been complex, terrorizing Ismene as a child, always insisting that her sister was beautiful and had a place in acceptance, as for her, she wasn’t destine for such pleasures. By these accusations, the author
Antigone is a tragic play written by Sophocles in about 441b.c. The play is a continuation of the curse put upon the household of Oedipus Rex. Sophocles actually wrote this play before he wrote Oedipus, but it follows Oedipus in chronological order. The story of Antigone begins after the departure of Oedipus, the king of Thebes, into self-exile. Oedipus’ two sons, Eteocles and Polyneices, were left to rule over Thebes. An argument over rights to power forces Polynices to leave Thebes. Some time passes and Polynices returns with the army from Argos and attempts to overthrow his brother. The two brothers fight and kill one another and the war ends. Creon, the uncle of the two
Antigone, written by the Athenian Sophocles, is about a woman named Antigone who lives in a city named Thebes. The play’s plot is based on her attempt to successfully bury her brother Polynices whom perished in a battle with his brother that also assumed the role of
Antigone is a Greek tragedy by Sophocles. ONE OF THE three surviving tragedians of classical Athens, along with Aeschylus and Euripides, and one of the great dramatists of world literature, Sophocles spanned in his long life (497-406 B.C.) the cultural flowering of Athens in the fifth century(Segal 1). Antigone is named after the daughter of King Oedipus of Thebes, a young woman who stood against the king’s decision and believed in the gods’ law. There are many arguments regarding who is the real protagonist and antagonist in this play. The protagonist is generally regarded as the good guy and antagonist is the bad guy. Antigone is a protagonist as she is the title character in the
Sophocles, a great tragedian, was the one who gave Greek tragedies their traditional form. An important part of traditional Greek tragedies is the presence of a tragic hero. All tragic heroes should have the characteristics of rank, a tragic flaw, a downfall, and a recognition of mistakes. The seemingly tragic hero is Antigone. She wants to bury her brother Polyneices even though this would be going against Creon, who is her uncle and the king. When Antigone buries Polyneices Creon sentences her to death because of it. In Antigone by Sophocles the tragic hero is not Antigone because she only meets the characteristic of a tragic flaw, hers being pride, but doesn 't meet the other three characteristics of a
Finally on page 774, Antigone is still determined to give her loving brother, Polyneices, a proper burial when she says, “…as for me, I will bury the brother I love.” In this incident, Antigone is headstrong about giving her brother what he deserves, despite the fact that Ismene told her to obey the law. Antigone is acting as if she were a rebellious teenager because she is contradicting political laws to perform acts that would seem moral to her for the sake of Polyneices. Like the discussion Antigone had with her sister, she will remain being headstrong to whoever confronts her.
We read that Creon has issued a law that if anyone buries the body of Polyneices they will be sentenced to death. Antigone plans to bury her brother regardless of the law set into place. She is going to try and do it in secrecy and to avoid detection. She asks her sister, Ismene, to join her in the burial, but she refuses. At this point in the play the you realize the fear setting in. Ismene believes
This shows Antigone trying to get at her sister's heart by reminding her that the corpse that lays on the field beyond the city is the corpse that belonged to her own brother. Antigone is disgusted that Ismene keeps saying no because her love for Polyneices is crushed by her fear of Creon. Finally antigone accepts the fact that Ismene will not join her in buring their brother so she decides to make her feel guilty by saying, “That must be your excuse, I suppose. But as for me, I will bury the brother I love. ”(Sophocles, 192).
When a teenager rebels they do so because they are under minded by authority. One example is illustrated in Persepolis, Mrs. Nasrine, Marjane's maid, is distraught over her son's life having a worth of a plastic key (Satrapi 99). Mrs. Nasrine's son is promised luxuries in the afterlife if they die in war (Satrapi 100). This simple view of a teenager’s life and their usage leads teenagers to rebel. Marjane's cousin, Shahab also recalls seeing the teenagers being thrown into the field and faced with immediate death (Satrapi 101,102). Iranian teenage boys are shown to be simply fodder to the Iran Iraqi War and while they hold the future of a nation, the regime only sees them as pawns. The idea of teenagers being the minds to manipulate and brainwash
Antigone is a tragedy story that written by Sophocles in around 441BC. Sophocles is an author who lived around B.C. which it is before Christ. He wrote 120 plays, but the are seven plays that still continue to read which are Antigone, Ajax, The Women of Trachis, Oedipus the King, Electra, Philoctetes, and Oedipus at Colonus. The main characters of the play is Antigone and King Creon and they are relatives who have conflicts between each other. They both have similarities and differences thoughts, beliefs, and decisions.
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.
The beginning of the play begins with Antigone and her sister, Ismene. Antigone presents her plan of burying their brother, Polynices, whose body had been denied a proper burial by their uncle, King Creon, since in his eyes Polynices had been seen as an enemy to the city. Antigone wanted Ismene to accompany her, but Ismene immediately refused in fear of the consequences. Ismene states “We are women and we do not fight with men/ We are subject to them
Over the past couple months, our English 9 class read and acted out the classic
As the play begins Antigone is just meeting up with her sister and is telling her about the decree of King Creon. Antigone and her sister, Ismene, had two brothers who had killed each other on the battlefield. One of their brothers, Eteocles, was buried with the military honors of a soldier’s funeral, and yet the other, Polyneices, was to be left out to be food for the carrion birds since he died fighting against the city of Thebes. King Creon forbade publicly for anyone to bury the body of Polyneices under the penalty of death. Antigone is now determined to bury her brother and wants Ismene to help her. Ismene does not want to go against what the king has ordered and is fearful of what may become of her if she
Sophocles’s play, Antigone is the third of the three Theban tragic plays and was written around 440 B.C. and is still well known today. Sophocles 's play Antigone tells a tragic story about family honor and a sister’s love for her brothers. After Antigone’s two brothers, Polynices and Eteocles died in battle, Creon became the new leader of Thebes. Creon orders that Eteocles have a proper burial while Polynices’s body remain unburied, simply left to rot. Antigone refuses to let her brother’s body be disrespected and decides to go against Creon’s orders and bury her brother herself. After being caught, Haemon, Creon’s son and Antigone’s love, fails to persuade his father to spare Antigone’s life. In the end of the play Antigone, Haemon, and
The topic I chose to write this essay on is about the examination of the central conflicts that are taking place in the story “Antigone”. Throughout the story and what seems to be the start of many conflicts to come is, Antigone the main character having hard time fathering the fact that she’s not allowed to bury her other brother Polynices. Due to orders given by her uncle Creon. Essentially in the story Antigone struggles with fighting against the social customs of the time, disputes with her sister Ismene, and Creon who represents the state or government and the ultimate enemy.