Theme Of Duty In Antigone

While Antigone represents a full devotion to humanism, her sister, Ismene, represents not only the rejection of it, but also passivity towards the notion of morality which, in a sense, is equivalent to Creon’s treachery towards what we hold morally sacred. Ismene has long been used as a symbol of both anti-politics and anti-humanism, which creates a dynamic plot by contrasting the cowardly fear to stand up for one’s concept of what is right with a brazen display of self-fulfilled justice. (2) What’s worse may be Ismene’s knowledge of her cowardliness and complete complacency, as seen when talking to Antigone about her plan to bury their slain brother when sharing her fear of punishment, " Think how we’ll die far worse than all the rest, if we defy the law and move against the

Within the first few hundred lines of Antigone, Sophocles shapes the reader’s perception of Antigone and her philosophical beliefs. When speaking to her sister, Ismene, about her plan to bury their brother, Antigone states “I’ll do what’s honorable, and then I’ll die” (Sophocles, 750). Antigone’s willingness to die for a cause that she feels is honorable and right demonstrates a particular value in regards to her philosophies on right and wrong. Antigone demonstrates that the conflicting nature of her beliefs and the king’s beliefs on the right way to deal with Polyneikes’ death will not hold her back from doing what she believes is right.

In the play Antigone by Sophocles, Antigone is portrayed as a character searching for justice for her brother’s burial after Creon had declared him a traitor to the city of Thebes. After a blood versus blood battle with Polynices versus Eteocles, the two brothers committed the horrid crime of fratricide and one was granted the right of burial, and the other was made an outlaw. Antigone’s understanding of justice is demonstrated by the fact that she puts family and the ones that she loves above all, even at the risk of death. Throughout the play, Antigone displays no fear at the thought of death when it comes down to burying her brother, no matter what anyone says about him or his burial. Antigone’s search for justice is successful because she dies as a heroic figure who put family over law and died for the cause of family. The search for justice in Antigone's life ultimately kills her, but she is remembered for her great strength and courage that helped her to defy the law and bury her brother. Antigone demonstrates her tenacious allegiance to her fallen brother and will not let Creon or anyone else tell her not to bury him because of her unending belief in family and justice.

As a woman, Antigone upholds her normative feminine funerary duties in burying her brother, Polyneikes, showing her dedication to the realm of the personal. Antigone claims to gain glory from the act of giving Polyneikes his due funeral rites. She aptly asks Kreon, “What greater glory could I have gained than by / properly burying my own true brother?” (552-554). Antigone argues that her honor as a non-citizen and as an unmarried woman stems only from the honor bestowed upon her direct, male relations, a group that includes the traitor Polyneikes. Under usual circumstances, if Kreon had not earlier declared death upon anyone who buried Polyneikes’ body, Antigone and her sister, Ismene, would be expected to perform funeral rites, as this is a female duty. This means of gaining feminine glory becomes clouded when Kreon, another of Antigone’s kinsmen, forbids the very act of normative, performative femininity expected of Theban women. Conversely, Antigone is aware of her place in society in that she acknowledges that burying her brother

He ended the bloody war between his nephews, Polyneices and Eteokles, and he showed no concern to Polynieces death. He claimed that “they are dead; I am king”(28) and the state will thrive through his principles. To dispel rebels, Kreon banned Polyneices burial and left his body unburied to be “ripped for food by dogs and vultures”(28). Although the law was unreasonable and cruel, the state kept silent out of fear from Kreon’s assertion that “death is the price”(29) for violating his laws. Antigone burying Polyneices out of love caused Kreon to blame and threaten the Sentry, if his did not find the culprit.

“Creon honored one of our two brothers with one and dishonored the other without one?” (21-22), stressing the importance of honoring their brother. Antigone works to further make Ismene aware of the priority that must be placed on burying Polyneices, stating that, “For my brother, certainly, and yours, if you will not. / I for one will not be caught betraying him.” (45-46), even after Ismene shares her concerns with Antigone’s plan. This again enforces the tone of the unshakable dedication Antigone has for burying Polyneices.

Ismene originally did not want to fall into the same pit the rest of her family fell into with the public shame they all felt, she reminded Antigone of this by saying, “think of how our own father died, hated,/ his reputation in ruins,” but soon turns to her family’s side when her sister is faced with death. She decides to join her sister on the brink of death saying, “but now you face such dangers… I’m not ashamed/to sail through trouble with you,/make your troubles mine,” but this is not a dependable change of heart. This change in plans to die for a crime she had nothing to do with was not a true shift in loyalties, but instead she wanted to die with her sister. Ismene made it evident she did not believe in what was happening, but that she wanted to die with her sister, which is a shift in family loyalty compared to her original stance, but overall she did not fully believe in the cause for which they were dying because she did not partake in the actual crime. Ismene becomes an unusual female figure with the strength it took to change her mind, and die with her sister, as well as a shift in family loyalty, but she still had a strong belief in state

In contrary Ismene is docile and someone who follow the laws at all costs. She said, “we are women” stating a woman’s position in society and obligated to obey by the law. She doesn’t agree with her sister Antigone, since is prohibiting for women to have a voice during those times. Ismene believe that women should never violate the laws of man who were guide by the gods. Antigone will carry out the forbidden burial alone, nevertheless she seeks futilely the complicity of her sister Ismene. Ismene without endorsing the established power by King Creon, discreetly folds to it, became a passive collaborator of the system implemented by him.

Not only is Antigone courageous and highly motivated by her morals by standing up for her political and religious beliefs, she also protects her personal ones when she buries her brother. Antigone places family above her own life, and she refuses to let a man stand in her way of maintaining her ideals. She buries Polynices out of her own loyalty to her brother even after her sister, Ismene, refuses. Antigone is cruel to her for not taking part in illegally burying their brother. Instead of being caring and considerate, she becomes irate and at the end of their conversation says, "Go away Ismene: I shall be hating you soon, and the dead will too, for your hateful words," Antigone's flaw was her headstrong behavior and her stubbornness, which ultimately brought about her downfall and the downfall of those around her. Her persistence of course, is what forces Antigone to rashly take matters in to her own hands. Creon then decides to take Antigone's life "Away with her at once, and close her up in her rock-vaulted tomb. Leave her and let her die". To everyone's surprise Antigone does not run from her death sentence suggesting a great trait of braveness, which the chorus recognizes before her exodus from life. The notion that a person has no say in the affairs of their loved ones and the fact that those laws were defied deserves

Even though Antigone has familial love toward her brother, she expresses sympathy toward him. Antigone does this by telling her sister that Creon “Promotes one of them and shames the other” by denying his burial rights (22). In this part of her speech, Antigone chooses her words carefully to describe the situation to her sister and express the sympathy she has for Polyneices, especially when she uses the phrase “shames the other” and “miserable corpse” (22-26). Antigone is sympathetic of her brother Polyneices because he is not given a proper burial and is left to the “vultures, unwept, unburied” like he is forgotten (29). It is also intriguing to see how Antigone’s sympathetic response to the lack of her brother’s burial is actually the familial love she has for him. Because she loves and considers him a part of her family, she is emotionally sorrowful for the way he has been treated.

The modernization of the play Antigone would cover a broader range of issues than initially anticipated. As was previously stated, grief, death and burial rights are all themes throughout this adaptation. The concept that one has a right to be buried connects to the Grecian belief that it allows the spirit to continue on

Antigone is credited as one of the best works of Sophocles, ranked by most modern critics above Oedipus the King. There are many aspects of Antigone that make it the play critics love to decipher and rave about. "Antigone must be received as the canon of ancient tragedy: no tragedy of antiquity that we possess approaches it in pure idealism, or in harmony of artistic development" hails critic Berhardy (Theatre History). He goes on to rave "It is the first poem produced by the union of the whole strength of the resources of which tragedy was capable: of all the extant works of Sophocles it is the most perfect: no other exhibits such a striking combination of subject, language and technique".

2a. As the play opens, Ismene and Antigone discuss the recent decree by Creon that states, “No one shall bury [Polyneices], no one mourn for him, / But his body must lie in the fields” (Prologue 20-21) and be beaten by wild dogs or vultures. Antigone takes the side of a daring risk to break the law and follow the rules of the gods. Yet, Ismene is dissuaded from helping as she sees the punishment, stoning to death, as a great price to pay. Thus, the two have a heated argument on whether to be “A true sister, or a traitor to [their] family” (Prologue 28).

(The Oedipus story or myth was well known even in Sophocles’ day, so his audience already knew what would happen at the end of Antigone. The knowledge between what the audiences knows and what the characters know sets up the tension for the dramatic irony). But Sophocles uses dramatic stuff to add some things that are not found in any previous traces of the story including the fights between Antigone and Ismene, Antigone’s two attempts to bury her brother. Tiresias’s argument with Creon, and the suicides which these events serve to intensify the play. (The Oedipus trilogy, Antigone was written first. The play won for Sophocles first prize at the Dionysia festival. It is still a popular play, with many stage and screen adaptations, including Jean Anouilh’s famous stage production Antigone the conflicts within the play, represented by the conflicts between Antigone and Creon, are powerful human struggles that are still relevant today). The Chorus delivers the message of the duty to the laws of the gods before all else, the moral is not a great ending. Many wondering people have questions. In ancient Greece, it was the duty of women to bury family members. (Leaving Polynices unburied was a violation of not only the laws of the gods but also the laws of the family. In addition, Creon was willing to put his own niece, and his son’s fiancé, to death. After a brutal civil war, however, restoring order is the responsibility of the king). When, and to what extent, do

Sophocles’ Antigone continues on a downward slope from Oedipus Rex as Oedipus’ misfortune is reflected onto his children, Antigone specifically. Through the play, Sophocles explores the concepts of power and loyalty in pitting Antigone against the law declared by her tyrannical uncle, Kreon. Law in the context of this essay and the play will be defined as the rules and regulations placed upon one by a power above that individual. This paper will argue that Antigone dissents because she believes the laws are held first by the gods, which are superior to any human ruler’s laws. Sophocles reveals this through Antigone’s claim that one’s afterlife is much longer than mortal life, her trivialization of Kreon, and her fiancé, Haimon’s, arguments with Kreon.