Antigone, By Susan Glaspell And The Doll House

In Sophocles’ Antigone, gender roles are a major conflicting theme throughout the entire play. The setting of the play was written during the Greek mythological days, around 442 B.C. During these days, men were dominant and held all of the power, so women were automatically treated as less. Antigone and Creon portray the conflicting sides between male and female, and Ismene and Haemon portray opposing sides to Antigone and Creon’s actions. Antigone, Ismene, Creon, and Haemon each show differences in behavior due to their sex versus the actions each character chooses to take. Antigone tells Ismene about her plans to bury their brother, Polynices, which is going against Creon’s orders. Antigone and Ismene, have contrasting perspectives on

In Sophocles’s Antigone, we can see that the deeply misogynistic society of ancient Greece has manifested itself into Creon, a despotic ruler, despising dissidents, traitors, and especially women. His hatred of women manifested into several examples of misogyny throughout the play: He assumed that the criminal who buried Polyneices was a man, he looks down on Antigone’s defiance as improper defiance of a mans order by a woman, and he virtually disowns his son Haemon for disagreeing with him and listening to a woman.

In Sophocles’s Story Antigone, the protagonist, Antigone has just learned that her two brothers have been killed in battle. One of them (Eteocles) received full military honors, and another (Polynesis) was named a traitor and was left to rot. Antigone wishes to bury her dead brother, despite Creon’s law, and the social norm of women being seen as property. Creon is insensitive, power abusive, and a leader who is naive about the obvious truth. These three deadly attributes are a recipe for disaster, and result in the destruction of the royal family, and his favor with the Gods.

Antigone proceeds to bury her brother because she claims that Zeus did not make the proclamation, and that a mortal cannot override the gods ordinances (1563). Her vindication for burying her brother in that is she will not break the laws of the gods. These unwritten rules, unwavering traditions and she doesn’t want to receive vengeance of the gods. She already knows she will die one day but choose to die now than to let her brother be unburied (1563). “For her allowing this would be greater pain than death to her (1563). Alike when Creon hears that Antigone is the person who violated his decree, he held his word by punishing her to death. Supposing that he let her go then he would not be a man but that rather she is. That be inaudible. Creon states from now they will act like women (1566). After Antigone and Ismene

Before Antigone begins, the two brothers of Antigone are engaged in a battle no only of land, but of power. Their deep desires to rule Thebes and male dominating ego, only lead to their deaths; a tragedy that would affect more than just themselves. The battle of glory for men would not be the same for their sisters, but in 442 B.C. as Sophocles illustrates, the living women would have to deal with the tragedies of the dead; a task not easy to be burdened with as woman. Their uncle, Creon, dominates Antigone and her sister Ismene to the extent of mourning their own brother's death. Antigone has chosen a fate without glory: "I'll suffer nothing as great as death without glory," (Antigone line 112). Only a male in this time could die with honor and glory, and just as her uncle has forced a death without glory for her brother, although a glorious death is honorable, she has decided it a better life to die without glory than dishonor her blood and the gods. Ismene does not wish to go against the laws of her uncle, for "women were not born to contend with men," but between the bond of her and Antigone, she will defy the king(line 75). Ismene is just as horrified about the edict as Antigone is, but asks what they--weak women--can do. During this era the women had a specific role, and to defy that role would be horrific enough, despite

In the ancient epic, men believed they were superior to women, and they perceived women are inferior to men. In the story of Antigone, Antigone, is a woman who goes against King Creon. In the beginning of the story, Antigone asks her sister Ismene to bury their brother together, but Ismene says, “You want to bury him? Break the law” (749). And “Remember, we’re women. How can we fight men. They’re stronger. We must accept these things - and worse to come” (Antigone, 749). Ismene does not want to against the law, and she does not want to against the king and the authority. In Ismene’s mind, women can’t against men, and men are superior to women. When Creon finds out someone had buried the body that he did not allow to, he says, “What man would

Throughout life we often times will face struggle. In Antigone, the struggle is whether to obey or do her womanly right. When the play was written it was the women of the family who handled burials; however, her brother was to be considered an invader. Antigone pleads with her sister to help her fulfill her family and womanly right to bury their brother to no avail. Creon had made it clear that the body of Polynices, the aforementioned brother, should be left alone to rot. There is no question that there are parallels between the struggle that Antigone faces and the world we live in today. The only difference is the types of struggle that we face today.

In the play, Antigone by Sophocles the moral purpose of this play is to show morality versus the law. In fact, Antigone deals with this throughout the play because she wants to bury her brother Polyneices, but Creon the king has made an edict that anyone who touches Polyneices body will be punished by death. So Antigone has to accomplish this being the only female citizen of Thebes who believes that her brother should be buried. Even her own sister believed that Antigone shouldn’t fight for this cause, “Our own death would be if we should go against Creon and do what he has forbidden! We are only women, we cannot fight with men, Antigone! The law is strong, we must give in to the law”(Sophocles 45-48). Many women encountered difficulties during the era of ancient Greece. Therefore, this made it more difficult for Antigone to go against Creon’s law. Especially, after she was caught sprinkling dust on Polyneices body and Creon had to punish her even if Antigone was his niece. Ever since Creon became king his power and hubris have blinded him to see that his actions

One perspective of oppression in Antigone is demonstrated through the conflict between Creon and Antigone regarding the burial of Polyneices, Antigone’s brother. Creon is the king of Thebes, and constantly has to assert his power, even if it means suppressing others’ opinions. When Antigone disagrees with his decree of allowing the burial of only one of her brothers, she defiantly performs a burial ritual for the other. Creon is outraged and issues the punishment of death upon Antigone, and condemns her sister Ismene for the same crime “for they are but women, and even brave men run when they see death coming” (Sophocles 460-465). It is clear that the main issue is not about Antigone breaking the law; but that she is an inferior woman who is expressing her opinions against someone of a higher standing. Creon oppresses Antigone for her gender and refuses to acknowledge her perspective because he would rather “lose to a man, at least”

Throughout many pays and novels, women have had important roles of helping form the main characters, in the way they think, move or change the story. Women have always been subordinate to men all through history, but in plays, novels, short stories, etc, they have been given large enforcing roles, showing the power within women. William Shakespeare and Sophocles use guilt, pride, and influence to demonstrate the importance of the women’s role to support the main characters in both the plays of Macbeth and Antigone.

Throughout history, women have always stood in the shadows of men. In many cultures, the role of women has always been to be seen and not heard. As one of the first feminists in world literature, the character Antigone, of Sophocles’ Oedipus Cycle, displays fine characteristics of a great female leader in order to stand up against male dominance for her religious, political, and personal beliefs. When the king denies her brother, Polynices, proper burial, Antigone goes against state law by burying him herself in order to protect heavenly decree and maintain justice. In doing this, she steps out of her place as a woman in a male dominated society.

From the start, Antigone takes a stand and decides to fight for the right to have her brother respectfully buried as she goes against a higher hierarchy with the mind set “ I will go and heap a burial mound/ Over my most dear brother” (Sophocles, 4). This reveals how she is breaking the stereotype that men are usually the ones who are strong and braver enough to become the hero. Moreover, Antigone fought oppression by not being scared of King Creon’s overpowering rules on Polynices’ burial. She was ready to face the consequence of death if she had to, saying about Creon: “ He has no right to stay me.”

Antigone, written by Sophocles, uses feminist criticism to relay the idea that man cannot surpass the power of the divine. This technique drives the conflict and major dramatic question in Antigone. Burial in ancient Greece was scared, and a huge role in Greek morals. To leave a body unburied was the ultimate crime in the eyes of the people and the gods. When Antigone buries her brother against Creon’s will, she shows her loyalty to the divine and defies Creon. To Creon, this burial is an insult, but even more so when he finds out the person who buried his opponent of war was a woman. Creon states his anger and underlying misogyny on lines 759 to 761, “ Better to fall from power… at the hands of a man - never be rated inferior to a woman” (Sophocles).

The human struggle to defy what is intrinsically wrong but established as permissible is openly apparent in the initial scenes of the play – strong-willed and brave-hearted Antigone reveals her plan to unlawfully bury her brother, only to be rejected and dismantled by cautious and law-abiding Ismene. Although Ismene is saddened by her brother's fate, nomos renders her helpless; social constructs have influenced her belief that their standings as women and individual citizens are no match for state law. Consequently, she is appalled that Antigone would even think of defying Creon, believing their brother's fate is out of their hands. She even warns her sister, "tis witless to be over busy."1 Her chance to rightfully bury Polyneices, and more importantly, to realize her innate responsibility to her kin, is temporarily barred by human-allotted law and practice.

“No woman shall seduce us. If we must lose, Let's lose to a man, at least. Is a woman stronger than we?” (Sophocles.II.3.539-540) says Creon, King of Thebes and uncle to the disobeying but brave Antigone in Antigone by Sophocles. A patriarchal society is a community in which male domination over women, Sophocles explains the journey of Antigone in getting her brother buried and yielding against the laws of Thebes in a man dominated city. Antigone portrayed in the play is loyal and stubborn, she would do anything that feels ethical and honest to her even if that disregarding the laws created by men. She responds to the standards of King Creon by going against her own blood, not believing that women should subjected to the rule that they