Examples Of Pathos In Antigone By Sophocles

To illustrate, Antigone articulates to Ismene that Creon lacks the power to prohibit her from burying Polyneices (Prologue, line 35). Disregarding Creon’s powers, Antigone extends both her immaturity and recklessness in amanner that both generates a hazy impression of Antigone’s plausibility and discredits her personality because of the seldom conflict between the king and women in Ancient Greece. Furthermore, characters such as Eurydice and Jocasta, who experience much more tragedy, diverge from Antigone in the course of their reactions. While Jocasta and Eurydice grieve for their loved ones and succumb to the sorrow, Antigone’s reaction exists at the opposite end of the spectrum where she acts with the sole intent to spite Creon. Continuing, Antigone dictates that she is “not afraid of the danger; if it means death, / It will not be the worst of deaths - death without honor” (Prologue, lines 80-81). Recognizing her inevitable fate, Antigone makes little effort to alter her actions or consequences. Her proud acceptance of her death, which she claims to be one of honor, projects her arrogance and stubbornness toward her situation. This immediate compliance fails to reflect the true outlook and reaction toward approaching death both today and in her time. Additionally, the diatribe provided by Antigone to the chorus near her death sparks much criticism when she asserts that she prays Creon’s punishment equals her own when the truth of her actions emerges (Scene 4, lines 67-69). Antigone’s blatant assault on Creon’s life conveys her ignorance, which also transmits the impossibility of her individuality. Sophocles employs Antigone to generate the generalized perspective of tyranny Conversely, many individuals justify Antigone’s reckless behavior

Creon does things in his own way knowing that nobody around him agrees with what he is trying to do. In the beginning Creon has set a law against the burial of his nephew Polyneices, because of his crimes. Polyneices sister, Antigone does not agree with Creon, and she tells Ismene, her sister that Polyneices will have a proper burial. “Look- what’s Creon doing with our two brothers? He’s honouring one with a full funeral and treating the other one disgracefully! Eteocles, they say, has had his burial according to our customary rites, to win him the honour with the dead below. (Sophocles, 317). This quote shows how stubborn that Creon can be. Creon always has to be in control which will prove to be part of his flaw.

The first form of pathos used in Antigone was the characters personal beliefs. In the prologue Antigone explains her reasons for burying her brother. She expresses her personal belief in her religion and her gods by doing the morally right thing by burying Polynices. Along with Antigone, many other characters, such as Creon and Haemon, express their beliefs. Haemon expresses his belief that Antigone should be spared. Creon also expresses his belief that Polynices is a traitor and Antigone is guilty. This strengthens Sophocles stance on standing up for personal beliefs. Another form of pathos used in Antigone is threats. The whole story is based off of the threat that any one who buries Polynices will be publicly killed. This helps achieve his purpose because it shows the the government doesn't always make fair laws. People can either accept the laws or fight for what they believe is true. A call to action was represented by Creon telling the Sentry to find out who buried Polynices. In this case it is Creon standing up for his beliefs. He made the law and is sticking to what he said. To add to Sophocles original purpose he shows here that once we choose to stand up for our beliefs we must stick by

Antigone is a Greek tragedy by Sophocles. ONE OF THE three surviving tragedians of classical Athens, along with Aeschylus and Euripides, and one of the great dramatists of world literature, Sophocles spanned in his long life (497-406 B.C.) the cultural flowering of Athens in the fifth century(Segal 1). Antigone is named after the daughter of King Oedipus of Thebes, a young woman who stood against the king’s decision and believed in the gods’ law. There are many arguments regarding who is the real protagonist and antagonist in this play. The protagonist is generally regarded as the good guy and antagonist is the bad guy. Antigone is a protagonist as she is the title character in the

Brad Moore, a famous athlete once said, “Pride would be a lot easier to swallow if it didn’t taste so bad.” In Sophocles’ well known Greek tragedy, Antigone, the main character undergoes immense character development. Antigone transforms from being stubborn and underestimated to courageous and open-minded. In reality, it is Antigone’s insular persistence that leads to her ultimate decline in the play as well as others around her. After the death of her two brothers, Eteocles and Polynices, Creon becomes the new ruler of Thebes. With this, he grants Eteocles an honorable funeral service for his brave fighting. Claiming that Polynices was a traitor, he shows complete refusal to grant Polynices a respectable and worthy service. Clearly

Creon has no toleration for people who place personal beliefs over the common good. He believes that government and law is the supreme authority, and civil disobedience is worst form of sin. The problem with Creon’s argument is he approaches He approaches every dilemma that requires judgement through descriptive generalizations. In contrast to the morality defined by Aristotle in his Nicomachaean Ethics, Creon shows that he is deaf to the knowledge of particulars--of place, time, manner, and persons, which is essential for moral reasoning. In short, he does not effectively bring together general principles and specific situations Creon does not acknowledge that emotion, and perception are as critical to proper moral consideration as reason. This explains why he does not respond accordingly with the reasoning of the guard, Tiresias the prophet, Antigone, her sister Ismene, or even his own son Haemon. Throughout the whole play, Creon emphasizes the importance of practical judgement over a sick, illogical mind, when in fact it is him who has the sick, illogical mind. He too exhibits pride in his argument. To Antigone and most of the Athenians, possessing a wise and logical mind means acknowledging human limitations and behaving piously towards the gods. Humans must take a humble attitude towards fate and the power of the gods, yet Creon mocks death throughout the play. He doest not learn his lesson until the end of the play when he speaks respectfully of

To him, Eteocles is a hero to Thebes who died defending the city’s honor. On the other hand, he would not overlook Polyneices’ alliance with other city-states to attack his hometown. Creon feels that the only reasonable way to promote peace in Thebes is to be strict on those who attacked Thebes. His edict read, “Eteocles, who died as a man should die, fighting for his country, is to be buried with full military honors, with all the ceremony that is usual when the greatest heroes die; but his brother Polyneices. . . I say, is to have no burial: no man is to touch him or say the least prayer for him; he shall lie on the plain, unburied; and the birds and the scavenging dogs can do with him whatever they like” (163-173). Once he finds out Antigone has disobeyed his orders, he considers her an ‘ungovernable young woman’ and sentences her to be buried alive. He disliked Antigone’s reasoning and thought that the God’s were on his side, seeing Polyneices as a traitor. It is ironic to see him behave the way Oedipus does when he was once king. Creon accuses everybody of conspiracy, including the blind prophet Teiresias. He predicts that Creon’s actions will result in the death of his family. Creon indicts him of being

Creon’s was used to being the hero of Thebes after repairing the damage Oedipus’ horrifying end had caused, now he was faced with an uncomfortable choice. Being the new reigning monarch of Thebes, his morals were centered around keeping himself monarch. As a result, Creon’s selfishness tipped his internal scales3 of what was just and what was not. His pride was so great that he not only refused to bury the revolutionary, Polyneices, but declared, “he’ll have no burial mound, no

“The gods no longer will accept our sacrifice, our prayers, our thigh bones burned in fire.” (Lines 1133-35) Teiresias explained to the king that a mortal human being was no match, and should not try to match, against the glorious gods. Creon admitted that he stood firmly on the final decision of not burying Polyneices, Antigone’s brother, and that no god had the power to make him to do so. “Even if Zeus’ eagles should choose to seize his festering body and take it up, right to the throne of Zeus, not even then would I, in trembling fear of some defilement, permit that corpse a burial.” (Lines 1160-65) Teiresias, on the other hand, was continuously persuading for Creon to compromise with everyone else, to fix his egotistic actions, with his statement: “Men who put their stubbornness on show invite accusations of stupidity.” (Line 1144-45) To which Creon responds with an insult rather than

Like his other work Oedipus and the King,it was devisied to bring back belief to the traditional gods and the like.Similar to Oedious and the King, excessive pride is a major part in Antigone.In the plays pride [excessive pride] is abhorred.A person with hubris is severly punished by the gods.

King Creon’s tragic flaw is hubris. He does not listen to advice given to him by the blind prophet Teiresias. When Teiresias tells Creon, “Give in to the dead man, then: do not fight with a corpse- what glory is it to kill a man who is dead? Think, I beg you: It is for your own good that I speak as I do. You should be able to yield for your own good” (Antigone 36-40). King Creon does not like the fact that the prophet believes he is wrong and should do what everyone else has so far advised him to do. He accuses Teiresias as giving him such a prophecy because of bribery from others and a hunger for gold. Hubris is also revealed from King Creon in Scene III. Creon’s son, Haemon, tells Creon that the people of Thebes believe they have never seen a girl die such a shameful death and that the people live in fear of Creon. Haemon tells Creon he also believes Antigone should have been allowed to bury Polyneices and should be set free. King Creon responds with, “You consider it right for a man of my years and experience to go to school to a boy?” (Antigone 95-96). This shows that Creon does not believe a man of such age, “wisdom”, and “experience” should listen to anyone or change because of anyone else’s

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

When Polyneices, the son who went against the city of Thebes, dies, Creon decrees a law against the burial of the brother and son. He claims that Polyneices “broke his exile to come back with fire and sword against his native city and the shrines of his fathers’ gods, whose one idea was to spill the blood of his blood and sell his own people into slavery.” (Sophocles 261) Therefore, no proper burial should be given to a traitor. A just king sets aside his personal relationships for the good of the state. Creon is only trying to address the problem and ignore that Polyneices is family, treating him as any other citizen. When he addresses the chorus he speaks to them of

Creon learned valuable lessons of morality, moderation, piety, reverence, wisdom, and humility. Throughout all Greek dramas, myths, and even architecture, the idea of moderation has always been the front-runner in lessons. Creon, a rather overconfident king, wants his authority and power in the polis to not be challenged. New to the job, he makes his first judgment against the body of Polynices, instructing that his body is not to be buried and left for the dogs, threatening death by public stoning if one dared to disobey him. After making his decree, he boldly stated, "No man shall bury, none should wail for him;...His body

Antigone is thought to be a tragic hero because of everything that had happened to her throughout her life. She lost her father Oedipus through a curse and her brothers through battle. The only one that was left was her sister Ismene. Her brother Polyneices died in battle being a traitor to his family. There was a rule made from the king of Thebes stated that no one can mourn for or bury him. But Antigone did not care she still loved Polyneices and thought that he deserved to have a proper burial like his brother Eteocles. Foreshadowing, mood, and situational irony are used in the drama to explain peripeteia the reversal of fortune, nemesis fate that you can't avoid, and catharsis when the audience is feeling pity