Ismene would later be pardoned, but Antigone's decision to include her sister in the plot denotes further criminality on Antigone's part.
In any case, the crime that Antigone commits is relatively minor: she is not harming anyone and is actually following the law of custom, tradition, and religion, a law which Antigone places before any law of the mundane world. Ironically, her suicide can be interpreted as a further violation of divine law, but Antigone had already been sentenced to death. Antigone's crime also leads to the unfortunate deaths of those around her, including Antigone's fiance and Creon's son Haemon, and then Creon's wife Eurydice.
Similarly, Oedipus's unjust actions directly cause the suicides of several other characters in Oedipus the King. His beloved wife and mother Jocasta kills herself at the end of the play, causing Creon to poke his eyes out. Like Creon in Antigone, Oedipus also violates divine and moral law. However, he does so unwittingly. Oedipus never knew that one of the travelers he killed that fateful day was his biological father; there was no way he would have known and thus Oedipus remains innocent of the initial crime of murder. However, Tiresias offers Oedipus a chance to not only redeem himself but save his city Thebes from destruction. If Oedipus can solve the riddle of his own life, he would suffer some psychological damage but would save Thebes from the and administrator of justice. In Antigone, the main administrator of justice is Creon the King. Justice is meted out primarily by the state. Divine justice is meted out at the end of the play, when Creon finally admits to his faults too late to save Antigone. On the other hand, Oedipus is both criminal and administrator of justice. He has committed crimes without knowing, and he is in charge of punishing the murderer of Laius. Ironically, the man he seeks in his death warrant is himself.
In some ways, Creon and Oedipus both act as criminals and prosecutors. Creon commits a crime against divine justice first by forbidding the proper burial of Polynices and then by harshly persecuting Antigone for wanting to bury her brother in the proper manner. One of the central messages of Antigone is therefore that divine justice trumps mundane law. Oedipus breaks a divine law not necessarily by killing his father and marrying his mother, acts he committed without knowing, but by refusing to acknowledge the truth to the detriment of himself and those around him. In the end, justice is served by the gods through the death of his wife and the continuation of the plague. The final word of Oedipus the King, therefore, has more to do with the detriments of pride than with the supremacy of divine justice.
Antigone suggests that Creon has defied the divine law even though he claims to promote lawful behavior, suggesting that he violate ritual and that it is her duty to change that, "Hate and scorn and shame have followed us, we two, living with hell's own curse... now Creon makes an enemy of our own flesh and blood" (Braun 22). Antigone argues that her actions are done out of love,
Sophocles plays "Antigone," and "Oedipus Rex." COMPARING THE SCENES Teiresias is the blind prophet of Apollo. He appears in both plays to warn the characters of some danger, or teach them what they need to learn, through the seeings of Apollo. He is the messenger of Apollo, bringing his words to the "mortals." He does not want to deliver his message at first, but Oedipus eggs him on, and he says, "Teiresias:
play Antigone by Sophocles, Creon brings disaster upon his family because he lacks experience and does not yet know how to rule wisely. Creon becomes King of Thebes at the beginning of the play because Oedipus' two sons, who were supposed to share the throne by ruling alternate years, had a falling out. Eteocles refused to turn the throne over to his brother Polyneices. Polyneices attacked the city attempting to
Antigone and Oedipus Rex are both tragic plays by Sophocles. In many ways, these plays are similar to one another as tragedies. For one, they are part of the same set of texts by Sophocles. Antigone is the first installment in the series of three plays. Oedipus the King (Oedipus Rex) is the second of the trilogy. Second, the title characters in the plays are related, as Antigone is the
Antigone's Fate / Antigone: The Game Of Fate The play Antigone, composed by Sophocles, informs us that fate cannot be controlled by anyone. Fate is an essential part of many tragedies. As for the characters in Antigone, their fates end up being unavoidable, whether it is due to the reason that they refused to accept it until it was very late, or they accepted the fate and permitted it to come
Thus, the nobility of Antigone's character lies in her reluctance to condemn her sister, whereas her tragic flaw lies in her fanatical devotion to the men in her family, to the point that she wishes to lie with her brother's corpse. Antigone's fall comes when she is caught burying Polyneices' corpse, and the fact that her subservience to patriarchy is the precise reason for this fall is revealed in Creon's
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now