Essay about Gender Bias Critic of Antigone

Throughout history, scholars, poets, and socialites cite and argue multiple aspects within Sophocles’ plays, which all contain a deluge of sentiments that permeate global society and culture. Riddled with disparate interpretations and theories, Antigone sparks acrimonious debate regarding a plethora of its details, such as characterization, theme, and undertone. Antigone, written by the Ancient Greek playwright Sophocles, recounts the events of Oedipus’ daughter, Antigone, following her brothers’ deaths. Sophocles manipulates Antigone’s character to model the loyal, dutiful individual the Greeks idolized in their religion and culture rather than formulating a realistic character who serves herself.

In the play Antigone, men view women as a threat to their masculinity and do whatever they have to in order to silence them. However, the women find ways to speak out anyway. Gender has profound affects on the meaning of Antigone's actions. Creon feels the need to defeat Antigone more so because she is a woman. Antigone's rebellion is especially threatening because it upsets gender roles and hierarchy. By refusing to be passive, she overturns one of the fundamental rules of her culture.

As the tragedy concludes, the chorus issues its final words: "Pray for no more at all. For what is destined for us, men mortal, there is no escape," demonstrating how justice remains impartial to the prejudice of men; those who make imprudent judgments will ultimately suffer from the consequences of their actions. In Sophocles' Antigone, these prejudices notably surface in the form of paternalism as demonstrated through Creon's government, highlighting the importance of gender roles throughout the play. Therefore, analyzing the motif of gender roles and its effect on the definition of justice through the perspectives of Ismene, Antigone, and Creon enables the audience to understand how Sophocles' macroscopic analogy to humanity's

Ismene is meek, far from outspoken, a foil to Antigone. Going beyond expressing the difference between two characters, the contrast between the two girls presents a bigger underlying issue in Thebes. Much alike to Ismene, women continue to accept the expected role of being submissive to men. The acceptance of men's superiority among women causes the citizens of this Greek society to be blind to the true issue. Gender stratification is evident in the instance Ismene reminds Antigone that they are women. Ismene expresses her concern for Antigone as she defies Creon's law when she states, “ We are women; it is not for us to fight against men; our rulers are stronger than we, and we must obey in this, or in worse than this” (59-61). Ismene is cognizant of Creon's iron fist and his fatal flaw of hubris and wishes to change Antigone’s mind so protect her from possible consequences. Her insistence for Antigone not to burry Polynices exhibits that she’s aware that women are subjected. Ismene attempts to influence Antigone’s decisions allows the continuance of women being submissive to

The female characters portrayed in Aeschylus and Sophocles’ works have considerably different personalities and roles, yet those females all have the common weaknesses of being short-sighted and stubborn. They intensify the conflicts within their families while being inconsiderate of the impacts that they may bring to their nations and societies, which leads to consequences that they are incapable of taking responsibilities for. Clytemnestra and Antigone, two major characters in their respective author’s works, possess different motivations for their deeds in the stories. While Clytemnestra is driven by the desire of revenge to murder her husband Agamemnon, Antigone acts against Creon’s will and strives to properly bury her brother. Despite having different motivations and personalities, Clytemnestra and Antigone both commit

To start, Antigone was written by Sophocles to make the people question their faith in both their religion and their government. Putting a young woman in a position in which she had to choose between staying loyal to her country and staying loyal to the gods, Sophocles showed the men of Athens in their comfortable lives that there wasn’t always a simple solution to all of life’s problems. It is important to note that it was only the men of Athens that were shown because they were the only ones that were able to see this remarkable play because of its depiction of women, specifically through Antigone. In a way, if women had been able to see this play, being

In Sophocles' Antigone, gender bias was quite prevalent. Sophocles used the conflict between Kreon and Antigone to demonstrate this. Kreon would not listen to Antigone because she was a women, ad Antigone was viewed as rebellious by the community for the same reason, however if she was a man she would have been seen as strong-willed and standing up for what she believes. Also, Sophocles used Antigone's sister, Ismene, as a portrayal of how women should behave in society.

Antigone is an extremely strong woman. The way that she stood up to King Creon when he banned the burial of her brother Polyneices for being a traitor. Antigone disregarded any consequences for her actions from the King just to do what she thought was morally right. Also, in Antigone women were looked at as being inferior to men. The scene that showed just how superior men thought they were to women in Antigone was when Creon mocked his son, saying that he was a “woman’s slave.” I interpreted this scene as Creon telling his son that he should not be a slave to any women, but rather a woman should be a slave to him. Antigone as a brave woman questioned and defied the traditional role of women in literature and its self. Antigone is some ways reminds me of Rosa Park, the strong women who decided one day enough was enough and she would not give up her seat on a bus for a white individual. The same way that Antigone stood up to King Creon, Rosa Parks stood up to society by saying that she deserved to sit in the same section as whites. Both women faced consequences for their actions, but they both also made incredible feats in literature and history showing how strong women truly are.

In Ancient Greece, a greek author by the name of Sophocles had created a Tragic Drama. This Tragic Drama was about a girl named Antigone, who lost her two brothers to conflict for the throne. Antigone was unable to bury her brothers because the new elected king, Creon believes that one of Antigone’s brother, Polynices was a traitor to his people. Yet, Antigone defies Creon and did what she thought was morally right for her brothers.

Antigone is a strong willed woman who questions authority in a time when women were expected to be civil and obedient. Ismene is the image of a perfect girl who is beautiful, obedient, and timid, while Antigone is confident and refuses to conform to the stereotypical woman who is servant to men. “Will you lift up his body with these bare hands / and lower it with me? Antigone questions her dutiful sister (52-53). Ismene is uneasy about break the law and questions, “What? You’d bury him / when a law forbids

Antigone, a Greek tragedy pertaining to the events following the deaths of Eteocles and Polynices, Oedipus’ sons, due to a conflict over power. Upon the death of both children their uncle Creon takes the throne of Thebes for himself and declares Polynices a traitor to the state and withheld his burial rights from him. Antigone choose to disobey Creon’s decree and bury her bother. Sophocles’ play has been a long treasure piece of literature throughout the ages; sparking many papers and debates from physiologic evaluations to the play’s now perceived feminist implications. More intriguingly so, Antigone has also been used as a window of study into the working of past politics as the play is riddled with both obvious and subtler political

Antigone is portrayed as a courageous woman whose audacious qualities defy the authority of a patriarchal society, whereas Ismene conceals herself in the shadows of stronger men. Antigone accepts the dire consequences that follow with her decision, despite knowing what fate lies ahead of her. Throughout the tragedy Antigone stands by her decision, simply replying to Creon “I do deny nothing.” (208). Antigone is willing to bend the law to do what is morally correct and listen her heart. Her assertive behavior to stand up to the authority and coney her opinion is an uncommon trait for a woman to possess during her time which sparks Ismene’s concern. She constantly encourages Antigone to stop resisting against the law and to follow Creon’s wishes, telling her “We are only women, we cannot fight men! ” (191). This indicates Ismene’s obedient behavior towards the law and how she doesn't wish to create a disturbance. She is constantly worried about the dealing with the consequences of betraying the law. Ismene further explains how women are supposed to behave in an orderly fashion rather than question the law. She is portrayed as a submissive girl, whose acquiescence towards the law, preserves her life Ismene’s quiet behavior is distinctively different than Antigone's outgoing personality.

Antigone’s story was one of the first portrayals of feminist behavior. Her ability to stand up for what she believed in gave women hope that they would also be able to. As a frontrunner in the feminist world, she once again displayed her heroine characteristics in taking action as opposed to sitting back and letting things happen in the way that it was expected in those day. She went up against King Creon and showed no sign of backing down even though it ended up becoming the cause of her death. She was prepared to take full punishment for burying her brother because she knew she was committing a crime. She stood up for what she believed in and did not fight against the King or even her fiancée, who was the son of the king, to get out of

The punishment for overstepping Creon’s authority was always going to be severe, however Antigone’s femininity made her punishment exponentially more sinister. In Sophocles’ “Antigone” there is a clear gender conflict that forms between the protagonist Antigone and the antagonist Creon. Antigone’s determination to give her brother a just burial inspired the people of Thebes, but enraged Creon. Although Antigone does not obsess over the gender struggle as much as Creon, there is no disputing that the gender roles of Ancient Greece fueled the central conflict of the drama. The clash between Antigone and Creon was symbolic towards the subjugation of women by men and the women who dared to defy their status.

This essay will focus on the messages about masculinity and femininity from Sophocles’ play Antigone. For class we watched the Greek film version of the play from 1961 which is in Greek but it has English Subtitles. The essay will use both male and female characters from Antigone to show examples of masculinity and femininity. There are characters that are either positive or negative, characters that serve as role models, or characters who show what not to be like.