Compare and Contrast the Part That the City or State (Polis) Plays in Antigone and Oedipus the King.

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 set in Thebes, which is an ancient Greek city that is set to be cursed and prone to disaster. By setting Antigone in Thebes, Sophocles allowed the tensions between male and female to be explored.

Foreshadowing is a significant device in the play where it helps the reader understand the theme of fate in the play. An example of foreshadowing is when Oedipus speaks to his children and says, “I weep for you, though sight is mine no more, Picturing in mind the sad and dreary life which waits you in the world in years to come”. This informs the reader that Antigone will have a similar fate to her father’s, however she deals with it differently. Antigone is fully aware of her fate and therefore she accepts it. She decides to obey the laws of the gods instead of Creon’s laws by giving her brother a proper burial. Even when she faces death, she still holds on to her beliefs knowing that her fate is inevitable and this is shown when she says, “my fate prompts no tears.”. Therefore both Oedipus and Antigone discovered their fates, but one of them decided to fight against it while the other decided to obey the gods by accepting it. Even when they had similar destinies, Oedipus was seen as a leader who brought shame to Thebes, while Antigone was recognized for her heroicness and courage because she respected the gods enough to follow her

In Oedipus the King, a plague has fallen upon the city of Thebes. Forced to take action Oedipus sends Creon to the oracle in

The play opens in the middle of Thebes. Oedipus exits his castle, to be met by almost the entire kingdom. Oedipus knows immediately that something is wrong and it is this singular event that paves the way for the subsequent events that lead him to his downfall. Everyone-young and old, sick and healthy- had gathered in the middle of town seeking deliverance from an unknown evil. This evil is quickly determined to be a plague that had ravaged the land. The people of Thebes are highly religious as stated in “So, with the help of God,/ We shall be saved -Or else indeed we are lost “(148-149) The plague itself was interpreted as a punishment inflicted by the gods, to get the people of Thebes to drive out the

Greek theater encompassed many aspects that reflected the moral values and ideals of society. Their customs were tightly woven into the scripts of plays. Antigone and Oedipus the King, two renowned works of the Greek playwright Sophocles, explore these values through a plot thick with corruption, virtue, and determination. These plays reveal the burdens two Theban kings, Oedipus and Creon, as their lies and poor judgment corrode the integrity of their city, their families and themselves. Possessing a strong faith in their respective gods, the characters of these Greek plays are often led astray as they try to escape the twisted hand of fate, further warping their perception of reality. As their vain

The play “Antigone” is a tragedy by Sophocles. One main theme of the play is Religion vs. the state. This theme is seen throughout the play. Antigone is the supporter of religion and following the laws of the gods and the king of Thebes, Creon, is the state. In the play Creon has made it against the law to bury Antigone’s brother, something that goes against the laws of the gods, this is the cause of most conflict in the story. This struggle helps to develop the tragic form by giving the reader parts of the form through different characters.

Around 442 BC in the city of Athens, Greece, Sophocles wrote the greatly admired tragedy, Antigone. Antigone includes many themes such as Freedom, Protection of Personal Dignity, Obedience to Civil Law, Protection of Community/Nation, Loyalty/Obligation to Family, and Observance of Religious Law. Many of the Greek tragedies that have been written include a tragic hero that has his/her tragic flaw. In Antigone there are two main characters; Creon, the tyrant king of Thebes, and Antigone, the daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta. One of these main characters must be chosen to be the tragic hero in the story. Creon and Antigone are almost polar opposites when it comes to views of society, but their attitudes are almost identical.

   In the Antigone, unlike the Oedipus Tyrannus, paradoxically, the hero who is left in agony at the end of the play is not the title role. Instead King Creon, the newly appointed and tyrannical ruler, is left all alone in his empty palace with his wife's corpse in his hands, having just seen the suicide of his son. However, despite this pitiable fate for the character, his actions and behavior earlier in the play leave the final scene evoking more satisfaction than pity at his torment. The way the martyr Antigone went against the King and the city of Thebes was not entirely honorable or without ulterior motives of fulfilling pious concerns but it is difficult to lose sight of the fact

The play Antigone by Sophocles is a play like no other. There are three major themes or ideas which have a very important role in the play. The first major theme is fate, on how the play comes about and the turn of events that come about throughout it. Another main theme or idea is the pride the characters have and their unwillingness they have to change their minds once they are set on something. The last major theme is loyalty and the practical problem of conduct involving which is a higher law between the divine laws and those of the humans. It is an issue of which law is the "right" law, and if Creon and Antigone's acts are justifiable or not. The issues that Antigone and Creon have between them

plague of Thebes, a historical epidemic in Sophocles' Oedipus Rex." Emerging Infectious Diseases, 18(1): pp. 153-157. Web. Retrieved from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3310127/. [Accessed on 24 September 2012].

Like all Greek tragedies Oedipus is set around only one setting, here it’s outside the Kingdom where the citizens of Thebes and the chorus of the Theban councillors all gather in hope of Oedipus’s wisdom. The stage is set out in a fixed stage, with the kingdom

Along with the contrasting conflicts the main characters, Oedipus and Antigone, are also very different in regards to their behavior and how they handle situations. Antigone is much more level headed than Oedipus. In Oedipus the King, Oedipus immediately kills a man just for being in his way and forcing him off the road a bit. Antigone on the other hand, does not take any physical action toward Creon despite not giving her brother a burial. Another difference in character is Oedipus’s defiance to the gods and the oracle while Antigone obeys the laws of the gods. Oedipus, to the people of Thebes, claims if they pray to him he himself would rid the city of the plague; making an implication that he is above the gods. Antigone however, wishes to obey the laws of the gods and demands her brother be given a proper burial. A closing example of the difference in how each character is rendered is how Antigone knowing breaks the law (defies Creon) for what she believes is right while Oedipus breaks the law without knowing; Antigone is

Oedipus the King contains many different characters. The main character and protagonist is Oedipus who is also the king of Thebes. Oedipus has a wife, Jocasta, who is also his mother and Creon’s sister whom is Oedipus’s brother-in-law. Antigone and Ismene are Oedipus’s and Jocasta’s daughters which also means they are Oedipus’s sister. There is also Tiresias who is the blind soothsayer of Thebes. Oddly, the antagonist is not a person, it is actually Oedipus’ own fate. Oedipus struggles with his fate throughout the play in many ways. For example, when he is told that he is going to kill his father and sleep with his mother, Oedipus moves away to avoid

Antigone is a play that was written in ancient Greece by the playwright Sophocles. It is the third play in a trilogy of tragedies about the city-state of Thebes, revolving around Oedipus Rex. Antigone starts the day after a civil war fought between the two sons of Oedipus Rex after his death. The civil war ended in death for both brothers, so their uncle, Creon, assumed the role of King of Thebes. The main conflict of the play begins when Creon gives one brother, Eteocles, a burial with honors, but passes a law forbidding a burial for the other brother, Polyneices with the penalty of death. One of the sisters of Eteocles and Polyneices, Antigone disagrees with this law, and decides to bury Polyneices, resulting in Creon sentencing Antigone to death. A conflict emerges between Antigone and Creon, who appear to be opposites. However, despite Antigone and Creon’s different stances on law, they are ultimately more similar than different because of their shared value of loyalty and their shared characteristic, hubris.