Gender Roles In The Clash Between Antigone And Creon

Gender and its roles are exposed in the story of Antigone as the central themes. Roles and rules are set and followed by several people in this era, this is appreciated in this text. Ideas of contradiction to these rules were not explored. In Greek mythology, several women held positions of power, but none of these women were human, making the idea of a powerful woman godlike and unattainable, as if to keep woman in their place, which of course, was always under the rule of the superior gender, the male. To challenge a patriarchy with feminism was dangerous, for both sexes were equally protective of it, leaving the challenger desolate in the battle against it. To rely on women to help other women rebel against this social norm was not probable, in the contrary, women held each other accountable for complying to these rules and punished those who didn’t. Women were their gender’s prevalent critics and suppressors, not only because they feared the repercussions, but since they didn’t have the means to rebel against it.

In the Greek play Antigone writer Sophocles illustrates the clash between the story’s main character Antigone and her powerful uncle, Creon. King Creon of Thebes is an ignorant and oppressive ruler. In the text, there is a prevailing theme of rules and order in which Antigone’s standards of divine justice conflict with Creon’s will as the king. Antigone was not wrong in disobeying Creon, because he was evil and tyrannical. The authors of “Antigone: Kinship, Justice, and the Polis,” and “Assumptions and the Creation of Meaning: Reading Sophocles’ Antigone.” agree with the notion that Antigone performs the role of woman and warrior at once. She does not only what a kinswoman would, but also what a warrior would do.

Antigone’s words, actions and ideas contrast with Creon’s characters to the point of these two characters having conflicting motivations. These Conflicting motivations cause the characteristics of abomination, discourteous, and egocentric to be highlighted within Creon’s character. Ultimately, these conflicting motivations develop Creon a tragic hero by his downfalls, how he’s been aggressive, and also when Haemon and Antigone killed their selves.

“Tell me briefly—not in some lengthy speech— were you aware there was a proclamation forbidding what you did?” (503-505). The actions, context of Antigone’s words, and also the ideas she proposed, very indepthly contrasted with Creon’s character. Thus resulting in there being a verbal confrontation between the two characters. The conflict between the two caused conflicting motivations such as stubbornness, disrespect, and anger to be projected with Creon’s character. Ultimately, these conflicting motivations develop Creon as a tragic hero by portraying that he knew, the decisions he made were of error, and the character interactions advance the plot by causing conflict throughout the play. Creon had also begun to change throughout the play,

Antigone is a play written by Sophocles. The genre of the play that Sophocles wrote was based on tragedy. It is one of the first plays that use tragedy. In the play a young girl named Antigone, stands up against her uncle Creon who is the king. She stands up for her rights, so that she can give a religious burial to Polynices. She was a girl with a lot of will power. This essay talks about the relationship between Antigone and Creon. This essay would contain paragraphs where there would be comparisons between Antigone and Creon’s Relationship.

The qualifications of a tragic hero vary between Aristotle and Shakespeare. Aristotle thinks of a tragic hero as someone who is a noble character by choice and makes his/her own destiny, while Shakespeare sees a tragic hero as someone who is born of nobility and born to be important. Although both tragic hero's end in a tragic death that effects many people, not all tragic hero's fit perfectly into both categories. In Sophocles’ Antigone, Creon is considered a tragic hero. Creon follows Aristotle's definition of a tragic hero by being a noble character by choice, having important potential, and falls due to "miscalculations" with circumstances that are beyond control.

Creon left Antigone in the tomb when he told the guards to ‘’take her to that vault and leave her alone’’ to let her choose death herself. In order to,not let Creon or his soldiers have the blame for her death. Therefore Creon wanted to resemble Antigone’s death as the punishment for anyone who was against Creon’s law. While, if he choose to stone her to death it wouldn’t end in silence. Along with, both Creon and his soldiers have the responsibility of her death. However, creon left her saying ‘’if she lives or dies,that is her choice, not ours’’.

Antigone and Creon are two characters with similar personalities, which caused major uproar between the two. Both are confident and persistent in their beliefs, doing what they believe was best. Antigone was guilty in the eyes of the law because she buried her brother against Creon’s ruling. Though the law seemed inhumane, Creon set the action into effect because he wanted to maintain his image in the city’s eyes. Antigone fought for her brother’s burial because she believed that her brother deserved to end up in heaven, no matter how he died. Antigone’s actions had moral reasoning that supported her decisions, whereas Creon’s reasoning’s were harsh. Antigone shouldn’t have died over her strong beliefs.

Creon in the play of Antigone by Sophocles, plays a major role within the play and Antigone also plays an important role because as these two character’s conflicting views led to utter disaster, which summits Creon as a tragic figure. In a period of the play Creon tried to stabilize decisions for the common good however, his choices ended in tragedy. Creon was displayed as the tragic figure, initially created decisions he hoped was for the welfare and well-being of Thebes though, Antigone, who went against Creon’s decisions, made Creon’s rage begin to mess with his reasonable way of thinking.

Antigone and Creon disagree greatly when it comes to gender roles. While Antigone thinks that women can take action just as well as men, Creon thinks that men are superior to women and that women should be subservient to men. These views clash greatly in “Antigone” by Sophocles. At no point in the story do they ever agree on this matter. If Creon and Antigone were ever capable of coming to a consensus on this matter there would be no story.

Ancient works such as Sophocles’ Antigone and Virgil’s The Aeneid are valuable because they provide a glimpse into life in ancient Greece. These texts allow readers to better understand the values and ideals held in the ancient world and see firsthand the areas where the Greeks placed great importance. One of these areas of significance is their concept of gender and traditional gender roles in society. The writings of Sophocles and Virgil have similarities and differences in the way the portray gender roles, but both influenced society and were passed down as lessons and examples to the Greek citizens.

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Creon, Antigone’s uncle and ruler of Thebes, presumes men to be the primary citizens and actors in their society. He believes that women should take a secondary and subservient role. In a defining moment of Creon’s character, he announces “I am not the man, not now: she

During our interactive oral, we covered areas such as the conventions in Greek theatre, the influence of Athenian society on the play and the portrayal of characters and conflicts. Through the discussion of these topics, our contextual and cultural understanding of the play developed and broadened.

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.