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Essay Antigone And Ismene

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Antigone and Ismene

The personalities of the two sisters; Antigone and Ismene, are as different from one another as tempered steel is from a ball of cotton. One is hard and resistant; the other: pliable, absorbing and soft. Antigone would have been a strong, successful 90's type woman with her liberated and strong attitude towards her femininity, while Ismene seems to be a more dependent
1950's style woman. Antigone acts as a free spirit, a defiant individual, while Ismene is content to recognize her own limitations and her inferiority of being a woman.

In the Greek tragedy "Antigone", by Sophocles; Antigone learns that
King Creon has refused to give a proper burial for the slain Polyneices, …show more content…

Antigone, not happy with her sisters response chides her sister for not participating in her crime and for her passivity, saying, " Set your own life in order"(346). For Antigone, no law could stand in the way of her strong consideration of her brother's spirit, not even the punishment of an early death. Ismene is more practical ; knowing the task is impossible, she feels the situation to be hopeless.

It is a wonder, which of the two sisters are really guilty of these chronic charges. Of coarse, Antigone acted so quickly, and failed to take the advice of the moderate sister, Ismene. Instead, going against Creon's words,
Antigone rashly goes ahead and breaks the law. Antigone is a fool, she must learn that such defiance, even when justified, is not conductive to longevity.
Although Antigone is foolish, she is also courageous and motivated by her morals. Proper burial of the dead was, according to the Greeks, prerequisite for the souls entrance into a permanent home. Therefore, perhaps Ismene is also foolish for her quick refusal to help Antigone perform the duty of
Polyneices proper burial. Ismene definitely seems hasty in her acceptance of personal weakness. Perhaps in some way, both sisters are guilty of the same tragic sins. Perhaps it is this rashness, more subdued in Ismene's case, that leads both sisters to their own destruction.

To my surprise, there is a strange twist in both

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