Both Antigone and Creon are determined and obstinate. Both exhibit the tragic flaw of hubris, because neither one is willing to surrender his or her will. However, Creon was in the position to avert the tragic ending of the play without sacrificing much more than his pride. Antigone, on the other hand, would have lost everything she believed in and her self-respect if she humbly accepted the marriage and did not raise a voice to Creon. Like Ismene, Antigone would have been another docile woman willing to accept the status quo and as such, she would not have been the play's heroine, tragic or not. Antigone's actions actually show her to be a remarkable hero who cared more for existential peace than for false security or meaningless laws. The tragedy at the end of the play testifies to Antigone's courage and strength. Determination and stubbornness do not necessarily equal hubris. One of the reasons Socrates is heralded as a hero was because of his willingness to die for the truth. If Antigone bowed under pressure in order to save her life, she would have been a far more tragic figure of failure. She would have been weak,...
As Sophocles wrote her, Antigone used whatever small amount of political influence she had to try and succeed, but Creon ultimately had the upper hand. As a result, Antigone draws attention to the pitfalls of patriarchy as well as to the need for people in power to demonstrate flexibility and compromise.
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 is the last play in the Oedipus cycle written by Sophocles. In the play, Antigone, the Oedipus's sister-daughter challenges her uncle, Creon, who has ascended the Theban throne after he brothers, Polyneices and Eteocles, are killed in battle. In the play, Antigone defies Creon's mandate that Polyneices should not be granted a proper burial because he is an traitor and an enemy of the state. Because of her opposing
Antigone: A clash of state and personal values Sophocles' drama Antigone unfolds the tale of the tragic daughter of Oedipus Rex. At the beginning of the play Antigone is the bereft sister of two dead brothers who died fighting in the Theban civil war. Creon gives the brother (Eteocles) who defended the city's current leadership a hero's burial while leaves the other brother (Polyneices) to rot in the streets, exposed to
As a character, Creon is almost and inverse of Antigone, because his concern for his own authority trumps his love for his own family, as he all but disowns his son Haemon for the latter's support of Antigone. As these flaws are the most important elements of characterization in terms of the plot, they essentially define the characters even in spite of the interior emotional lives hinted at within
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
Antigone What is fate, and what is free will? In Sophocles' play Antigone, both fate and free will are important in determining the outcome of the play. Fate is presented as something that the gods determine. It is the destiny of human beings, and something that people have no control over. No matter how hard a person like Antigone or Creon tries to fight fate, their lives are not entirely our
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