The Tragedy Of Antigone By Sophocles

“But one must neglect nothing that the gods demand” (1349-1350). Sophocles’ Antigone takes place in a trying time for the city of Thebes, when Oedipus, their king, and most of the royal family have died, and Creon has just been appointed the new king. Throughout the play, Creon tries on his power as the new ruler, and seems to believe that the gods will not be angry with some of his choices as king, even though they directly violate the divine law. However, in Antigone, when there is a conflict between the divine law and the state law, the divine law always prevails. Antigone continuously follows the divine law, and although she ends up dead, she does not face Creon’s pain of losing everyone he loves and all his people turning against him.

In life, we tend to see things in a black and white manner; good vs. bad. However, there is often a gray area that goes unexplored. Antigone manages to venture into this gray area through a complicated conflict of values. Kreon, the ruler of Thebes, has declared the leader of a rebellion against the state must not be buried. This conflicts with the leaders’ sister, Antigone, as she feels compelled to bury him. This conflict of values was expressed by German philosopher Hegel when he said “At the center of Antigone we find not a tragic hero but a tragic collision. However, the conflict is not between good and evil but between one-sided positions each of which embodies some good.” The result of this gray area is the creation of two separate themes, government vs. family, and man vs. the gods. Antigone represents both family and the gods due to her fierce loyalty to each, while Kreon represents government and man. Neither side is necessarily wrong, but it is the stubbornness and pride within them that leads to tragedy.

Sophocles’ play “Antigone” illustrates the conflict between obeying human and divine law. The play opens after Oedipus’ two sons Eteocles and Polyneices have killed each other in a civil war for the throne of Thebes. Oedipus’ brother in law Creon then assumes the throne. He dictates that Eteocles shall receive a state funeral and honors, while Polyneices shall be left in the streets to rot away. Creon believes that Polyneices’ body shall be condemned to this because of his civil disobedience and treachery against the city. Polyneices’ sister, Antigone, upon hearing this exclaims that an improper burial for Polyneices would be an insult to the Gods. She vows that Polyneices’ body will be buried, and Creon declares that anyone who

Antigone, a Greek a tragedy, is the third of the Three Theban Plays by Sophocles. Throughout the play, readers are introduced to few, but intriguing characters, one being the protagonist of the play, Antigone. Antigone is the tragic hero of Antigone; she presents recognition of the gods, exemplifies good virtues, and possess a fatal flaw, or hamartia. A tragic hero is a great or virtuous character in a dramatic tragedy who is destined for downfall, suffering, or defeat.

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 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.

What would happen if one flaw in your character traits led to your ultimate downfall? The play Antigone, written by Sophocles, covers the story of a young girl named Antigone. She wishes to bury her brother Polyneices, who died in battle. However, King Creon refuses to allow Polyneices proper burial because of the treason he feels Polyneices had committed, even though appropriate burial rites were a sacred law among the ancient Greeks. Creon then locks up Antigone for her attempt to bury her brother. King Creon is therefore a tragic hero. “A tragic hero is a central character who is usually of high or noble birth and demonstrates a ‘fatal flaw.’ The tragic hero’s fatal flaw is hamartia, an ingrained character trait that causes the hero to make decisions leading to his or her death or downfall” (Springboard 253). King Creon is a tragic hero in Antigone due to his allowance of his own personal opinions, beliefs, and character traits to override those that he knows are approved of by the Gods; leading to his downfall.

A modern day audience would believe that since fate played a large role in the story, the decisions the protagonists make is not their fault. Even Creon hints that it is not his fault when Antigone dies, “take her to the vault And leave her alone there. And if she lies or dies, That’s her affair, not ours: our hands are clean.” (Sophocles 227) But at the end of the book this view does not seem to be the case.

When Medea poisoned and burned Jason’s wife, Creon committed suicide. He tried to save his daughter, but by doing so, he also died. In the play it states, “[Creon] moaned, and wrapped her in his arms, and kissed her, crying “Oh, my poor unhappy child, what god dishonors you? What god destroys you? Who has taken you away from me, an old man who has one foot in the grave? Let me die with you, child (1228-1233).” From this passage, one can assume that his child is his last thing he is living for. He claims to be dying, and he knows her death is what will kill him. Knowing this, he decided to die with his daughter.

Fate is an old debated concept. Do one's actions truly play a role in determining one's life? Is fate freedom to some or is it binding to others, in that no individual can make completely individual decisions, and therefore, no one is truly free. Nowadays, fate is a subject often rejected in society, as it is seen as too big, too idealistic, and too hard to wrap a persons head around. However, at the time of Antigone, the concept was a terrifying reality for most people. Fate is the will of the gods, and as is apparent in Antigone, the gods' will is not to be questioned. Much of Sophocles' work focuses on the struggle between human law and what is believed to be the god’s law. Fate was an unstoppable force and it was assumed that any

Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero is someone of great importance or royalty. The hero must go through something terrible such as a relative’s death. We must feel what this character is feeling throughout the story. Aristotle also said that a tragic hero scan be defeated by a tragic flaw, such as hubris or human pride. In Sophocles’ tragedy Antigone, both Creon and Antigone are tragic heroes.

To Aristotle, Greek tragedies had a special purpose. In general, he considered poetry to be of higher importance than history, since poetry was able to convey complex ideas and philosophical thought as opposed to simply the retelling of events. For Aristotle, the most important function of tragedy is the feeling an audience gets after they see one of these plays. It is a cathartic experience that is meant to cleanse the audience of their own fears and doubts and ultimately uplifts them and attempts to help them transcend their own issues. The way a tragedy draws on the emotions of the audience is to get them to relate to the tragic hero, and that is why it was so important for a tragedy to have a proper one. Antigone features the perfect example of a hero in a tragedy. In Antigone, King Creon is the tragic hero since he is adherent to a moral mean, he is life-like, he exhibits a tragic quality which results in a plot reversal, and ends in a moment of lament.

When Teiresias asks in Antigone (line 1051), "What prize outweighs the priceless worth of prudence?" he strikes (as usual) to the heart of the matter in Sophocles' Theban Plays. Sophocles dramatizes the struggle between fate and free will, in one sense, but in another sense the drama might be better understood as the struggle between the will of the goods (which it is prudent to follow, according to Teiresias) and man's will (which is often imprudent). Sophocles' characters are moved by their own wills, of course (either in accordance or in conflict with the will of the gods). Oedipus in Oedipus the King is determined to pursue the truth in spite of the objections of Jocasta, the priest, and his own misgivings. In Oedipus at Colonus, Theseus "cannot rest" (line 1773) until he has served both Antigone and the late Oedipus (implying that conscience is his motivator awareness, in other words, of his duty towards them). In Antigone, Antigone acts in accordance to the will of the gods (but in disobedience to the will of Creon) and does so knowing the punishment that awaits her: "Go I, his prisoner, because I honored those things to which honor truly belongs" (lines 178-9). This paper will show how while fate is a powerful force in The Theban Plays, the characters themselves are still left to exercise their own free will (either with respect or disrespect to will of the gods). Thus, the main drama consists not in the

Throughout Antigone, fate is responsible for many of the most devastating and critical events. The characters Antigone, Creon, Ismene, Haemon, and Tirasias experience many occasions that change their destiny, some events of which were predestined. It is frequently shown that fate and free will are intertwined. Each individual has a destiny, but it can be changed if they use their free will. Sophocle’s message is portrayed throughout the story through the actions of different characters. The individuals predestined fate and willingness to change it creates the series of events.

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.