Antigone

Antigone

Introduction

“Antigone” is a very tragic story of what happens when two stubborn people collide. This play gives many examples how ones hubris and pride can get in the way of right and wrong. There is also a large disagreement on which laws should and should not be followed: Mans laws, or gods' laws. In this paper we are going to discuss the main characters of Sophocles Antigone.

Antigone

Antigone is both the daughter and the sister of Oedipus (since he married his own mother). Now that Oedipus and his brothers are dead, Antigone and Ismene are the last of the Labdacus family. After her father went into exile, Antigone and her sister were raised in the house of Creon. Her brothers Polyneices and Eteocles were casualties in a brutal war for power, each brother dying by the other's hand. Creon has declared that Eteocles will be honored with burial since he was a defender of Thebes, while Polyneices' body is left to the vultures and dogs. It is this edict that drives Antigone to defy the state, since she believes her brother Polyneices deserves the same treatment as Eteocles. Some critics see Antigone as too self-righteous, even alienating, but others claim her as a seminal feminist, determined to do what is right even in defiance of patriarchal law. Indeed, Antigone captured the public imagination immediately after the first performance of the play more than 2,500 years ago, as her deeds expanded the possibilities of human action, reconceived the role of women in society, and delineated a new type of character, one who sets her individual conscience and belief in divine principle above and against the power and authority of the state.

Ismene

Antigone's last surviving sibling, Ismene is the foil for her stronger sister. In comparison to Antigone she has almost no ...