¶ … Doll's House and Antigone
Sophocles and Henrik Ibsen explore the philosophical discussion of judgment in Antigone and A Doll's House, respectively. In Antigone, the title character questions the right of leaders to judge strictly when she commits treason after burying her brother. The deciding factor in determining Ibsen's characters' fates in A Doll's House is a moral dilemma of the intent behind an act of fraud. Both Sophocles and Ibsen pass judgment on their characters, but show that the justice system may be flawed when motive and intent are not considered in the prosecution of crimes.
Antigone directly challenges the authority of King Creon when she says, "Your edict, King, was strong, but all your strength is weakness itself against the immortal laws of God. They are not merely now: they were, and shall be, operative forever, beyond man utterly." (Sophocles, Scene 2) This illustrates the primary conflict of the play: Antigone fighting against what she believes is an immoral judgment. Antigone is essentially a philosophical piece with debate and argument rather than character development and plot. Sophocles' characters are simplistic and archetypal, allowing him to pass judgment on all of the real people whom they may represent.
Ibsen, on the other hand, develops the characters and the conflict of A Doll's House over the course of the play, rather than relying on exposition like Sophocles. In the first discussion...
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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