Antigone Literary Analysis

In Antigone when Creon, the king of Thebes, issues a law stating Polyneices, Antigone’s brother must not be buried, Antigone defies this law and plans to bury him. However, Antigone does this because she believes the law of the gods is more powerful than the law of any mortal, even a king, When she is caught she claims that ‘Death yearns for equal law for all the dead.” and her brother deserves a burial (Sophocles 40). Antigone rebels not only for her beliefs, but

Sophocles is truly a literary genius. Time and time again in his plays he is able to use the groundwork of a plot to convey true meaning in powerful messages and lessons. This ability to embed deeper meaning between the lines of a simple story is what turns his seemingly basic plays to a masterful works of craft, so profound that they’re still studied today. A prime example of this master at work is in his play, Antigone. This tragedy takes place in the aftermath of Oedipus’ disastrous rule in Thebes

Susan B. Anthony once said, “The true republic: men, their rights and nothing more; women, their rights and nothing less.” In the plays Antigone, by Sophocles, and A Doll’s House, by Henrik Ibsen, strong women overcome restrictions and limitations placed upon them by their society and gender. In Antigone, Antigone chooses to defy Creon, her ruler, uncle, and a male authority figure, to support what she believes is right, which is burying her brother and respecting the gods. Though it was forbidden

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

“You know, you hanging your head, looking at the ground, do you admit or deny that you did this?” (Lines 538-540). Not only do the author and the audience give sympathy to Antigone, but it can be seen through Kreon that he even questions his own decision to kill his niece. The tone gradually turns sympathetic when Antigone is thrown in a cell and it being threatened with death. The tragic tone throughout the entire play is the most prominent of all the tones used. It can be seen with any character

both Tragedy and Comedy. An analysis of each play will then follow. The chapter will also include an explanation of how each work embodies a specific theme and compare/contrast how one work’s approach to a theme or concept differs from that of the other play. One of the most widely used styles of literature is Tragedy. Tragic is an adjective that describes numerous sad or depressing incidents that plague everyday life. Tragedy however is a bit more specific. Literary Tragedy is a written piece consisting

Antigone: An Interpretive Analysis on Conflicting Self-Reassurance Antigone is a complex, yet debatable play, written by Sophocles somewhere around 442 BC. Chronologically, it is the third of the three Theban plays, but was the first to be written. In addition, Antigone was also one of the most famous tragedies ever to be written. 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

Aristotle’s Poetics is a “reservoir of the themes and schemes deployed in ancient Greek tragedy and poetry” (Poetics iii). Written around 330 B.C., it was the first work of literature to make a distinction amongst the various literary genres and provide a proper analysis of them. In Poetics, Aristotle places a big emphasis on the genre of tragedy. When one hears of the word tragedy, one already assumes that something bad has occurred to an individual and an immediate emotion of sorrow occurs, but

In Sophocles’ play Antigone a young girl is confronted with a difficult choice of obeying the law of the land or fulfilling her filial duty. Her uncle has forbidden the burial of a traitor; the traitor happens to be Antigone’s brother who has declared war on his city. Antigone must decide: should she be compelled by personal motives and bury her brother- the punishment for which is death penalty- or should she obey the law and leave her brother’s corpse to be feasted upon by vultures? Either of the

Comparative Character Analysis of Classical Vs. Modern Tragic Protagonists. A hero/ heroine is described as the principal male/ female character in a literary or dramatic work or the central figure in an event, period, or movement. The classic tragic hero was defined by Aristotle in the fourth century as, "someone who is highly renowned and prosperous" (LATWP, 639), suggesting that there is a "natural right ordering and proportion of traits within the human being that if violated, produces calamity"