Antigone, by Sophocles

Her determination to honor the deceased led to her eternal rest. The play Antigone by Sophocles is a tragedy about a young woman named Antigone whose brother died in combat and was not permitted to be buried by the king. This leads Antigone to bury her brother and face the wrath of the king’s punishment. After Antigone’s death, fate changes for Creon, the king, when he loses all of his family members for going against the laws of the gods. As the eponymous character of the play Antigone, Antigone breaks Creon’s law by burying her brother and is sentenced to death, even if it were her uncle’s decree. Nevertheless, the character Creon suffers a fate far worse than death for upholding a law he had set up. The role of family ties in Antigone is

In the play Antigone, written by Sophocles, King Creon created a law that denied proper burial rites to anyone who invaded or betrayed the city of Thebes. Antigone defied this law by burying her brother, Polynices, after he was harshly accused of being a traitor. Both Creon and Antigone showed a tenacious passion toward their perception of justice, unwilling to accept that honoring the law and honoring the individual conscience were both justified in different ways. The stubbornness that they shared led them both to meet their downfalls, which conveyed the idea that being too proud to accept guidance from others ultimately leads to dire consequences.

In Antigone written by Sophocles and translated by David R. Slavitt, Antigone decides to risk her own life to be able to bury her brother in a respectful way in which she thinks is right. Antigone had an enthusiastic determination about it, approached it without regret, and also choose her destiny and her sisters. Her father’s fate was a big affect on if she was going to precede with burying her brother or to no give him the respect like the rest of the surrounding community. Even though Antigone risked her whole life and her entire future she made the right decision by burying her brother and sticking to her own judgment.

In Sophocles’ play, Antigone, the main character uses rhetoric to effectively persuade her audiences to sympathize with her. In the play, Antigone’s brother, Polyneices, dies a traitor to the Theban people. The king, Creon, decrees that no one is to bury the traitor despite the necessity of burial for proper passing into the afterlife. Believing that Creon’s decree is unjust, Antigone buries her brother. When she is brought to the king, Antigone uses this speech in defense of her actions. In the speech, she uses allusion, diction, and particular sentence structure to increase the effectiveness of her argument.

Eteocles and Polyneices was the start of this tragedy. “Where could I win respect and praise more validly than this: burial of my brother?” said Antigone. This quote comes from Antigone were she has strong emotions about the burial of her brother. She will do whatever it takes to get his proper burial. Antigone had very strong emotions about her brother which lead to very brave actions.

In the play Antigone by Sophocles, Antigone is portrayed as a character searching for justice for her brother’s burial after Creon had declared him a traitor to the city of Thebes. After a blood versus blood battle with Polynices versus Eteocles, the two brothers committed the horrid crime of fratricide and one was granted the right of burial, and the other was made an outlaw. Antigone’s understanding of justice is demonstrated by the fact that she puts family and the ones that she loves above all, even at the risk of death. Throughout the play, Antigone displays no fear at the thought of death when it comes down to burying her brother, no matter what anyone says about him or his burial. Antigone’s search for justice is successful because she dies as a heroic figure who put family over law and died for the cause of family. The search for justice in Antigone's life ultimately kills her, but she is remembered for her great strength and courage that helped her to defy the law and bury her brother. Antigone demonstrates her tenacious allegiance to her fallen brother and will not let Creon or anyone else tell her not to bury him because of her unending belief in family and justice.

Like Creon, Antigone also never falters in standing up for what she believes in. Although Creon fights for stubborn pride, Antigone is trying to promote what is right and shows her higher reverence for God’s law rather than for Creon’s laws. In the eyes of the townspeople, Chorus, Choragos, and Haimon, Antigone is sacrificing herself to give her brother Polyneices the rightful honors due to the dead. Many side with this brave, honorable girl because she would rather suffer persecution and even death rather than give into Creon’s illogical demands. In the play, the chorus says about her, “You have made your choice, Your death is the doing of your conscious hand”. Antigone knew of the consequences before she acted and in doing so she chose her fate. At the time, she pleaded her sister Ismene to help her bury Polyneices but was rejected. Despite being alone in trying to rebel and perhaps she may have been afraid, Antigone goes out of her way and puts her life on the line to bring her brother respect.

Antigone's representation of feminism broke all the Greece and her strong characteristics defy the inappropriateness of her nature. Antigone has given strong characteristics in her story and because of this she does not stand around while Creon's unjust law insults Polynices. Her boldness, bravery and, unyielding morals are all extremely important to her role in the play. Towards the story by the end, Antigone was punished for her actions; therefore, she was either going to be stoned to death or be locked in a tomb. Between those two choices she got put in a tomb and trapped there with no supplies. The person to do this to her was Creon and his response to this was, “...Take her go, go! You know your orders: take her to the vault and leave her alone there. And if she lives or dies, that’s her affair, not ours: our hands are clean.” (ii, iv, 710) She was buried for doing what was right and what she was obligated to do. She not only prefers this but her bravery, obstinacy and other traits destroy the image of the weak girl who is powerless to everything. Therefore, this is the reason why Antigone represents the epic

Antigone's loyalty to Ploynices makes her feel obligated to give him a proper burial. Antigone talks with Ismene, " The dead body of Polynices, miserably slain, they say it has been given out publicly none may bewail, none bury, all must leave unwept, unsepulchred, a dainty prize for fowl watch, gloating upon their prey!" (Sophocles 2). Antigone tells her sister that it is wrong for Creon to bury one of their brothers with honor and leave the other one as a meal for predators. Without her loyalty to her brother, Antigone would not have felt this strongly about his burial. This leads to Antigone disobeying the law. Her strong-will leads her to not caring if the burial of her brother goes against the king's orders, she believes in the more important Devine Law. Antigone answers Creon's question of why she disobeyed his law,"Because it was not Zeus who ordered it, nor Justice, dweller with the Nether Gods, gave such a law to men" (Sophocles 17). Antigone states that the law of the gods is higher than the law of the states. Her strong-will and beliefs lead her to disobey the law and stand up to Creon. But Antigone's self-image of loyalty, strong-will, and bravery kill her. She knows what she stands for and she will not let anything get in her way, even death. Antigone says to her sister, "You made your choice, to live; I mine, to die" (Sophocles 21). Antigone made her choice to die when she decided to bury Ploynices. In conclusion, burying her brother, breaking the law, and her own death, were all because of Antigone's self-image of

     By burying her brother, Antigone knowingly and willingly went against royal orders and in doing so chooses her own death. She knows as well as anyone in the town that death would come

In her dialogue with Creon, Antigone reveals that she buried her brother against the decree of the king to escape punishment from the gods. Divine law demands that Antigone buries her brother, and she knows that by doing so her death would be imminent. She had to choose between her obedience to Creon as a woman and a citizen and her loyalty to the gods. She develops to an immensely heroic woman because she alone understands that divine law is more eminent than state law. "I did not mean to let a fear of any human will lead to my punishment among the gods" (line

The line between bravery and recklessness is very thin, and sometimes the two are indistinguishable; however, there are times when one becomes the other. Throughout the Greek tragedy Antigone, Sophocles portrays Antigone as a bold and fearless character. Even after her uncle Creon, the king, forbids the burial of her disgraced brother Polyneices, she defies his orders to follow the gods’ commands. When her act is discovered, she makes no effort to defend herself, and readily accepts her fate: a penalty of death. At the end, she hangs herself in her last act of defiance. Although Antigone is hailed as a tragic hero with honorable intentions, it is her own foolishness that caused her demise and others’ misfortune. While her intentions are courageous and noble, Antigone’s fatal flaw of recklessness ultimately leads her and the people around her to tragedy.

Antigone is a woman in the context of fifth-century Athens, Greece who challenges the socio-political orders of the city in name of a blood relationship, which through her eyes is sacred in the name of the gods. The divine law says that all man should be buried following the proper rites. In the ancient Greek household, women are the ones who must do the proper funeral rites and bury the

Not only is Antigone courageous and highly motivated by her morals by standing up for her political and religious beliefs, she also protects her personal ones when she buries her brother. Antigone places family above her own life, and she refuses to let a man stand in her way of maintaining her ideals. She buries Polynices out of her own loyalty to her brother even after her sister, Ismene, refuses. Antigone is cruel to her for not taking part in illegally burying their brother. Instead of being caring and considerate, she becomes irate and at the end of their conversation says, "Go away Ismene: I shall be hating you soon, and the dead will too, for your hateful words," Antigone's flaw was her headstrong behavior and her stubbornness, which ultimately brought about her downfall and the downfall of those around her. Her persistence of course, is what forces Antigone to rashly take matters in to her own hands. Creon then decides to take Antigone's life "Away with her at once, and close her up in her rock-vaulted tomb. Leave her and let her die". To everyone's surprise Antigone does not run from her death sentence suggesting a great trait of braveness, which the chorus recognizes before her exodus from life. The notion that a person has no say in the affairs of their loved ones and the fact that those laws were defied deserves

In “Antigone” by Sophocles, a famous ancient Greek tragedian, the main character, Antigone, demonstrates a prohibited action in a strict, male-dominated society. Greek civilization upheld strong values and rules that were designed to enforce orderly behavior among its people. There were state laws created by the King, Creon, and divine laws created by the Gods. Divine law was superior to the king laws, and if that rule was disrupted, eternal consequences could ruin an individual. In this society, men were mighty, powerful, and in control of the kingdom. Women were traditionally treated as an underclass with no voice or power. Women were restricted from performing any masculine jobs, holding high civilization positions, and disobeying men. Although Greek civilization had strict standards for women, Antigone challenges the law through her actions in order to satisfy the Gods because it is what she thought was the right decision.