It recounts the travails of Antigone, daughter of Oedipus the former king of Thebes, who disobeys King Creon in burying the body of her slain brother. She knows that she faces death for doing this, but insists that she does not care, saying "For whoso lives, as I, in many woes, / How can it be but death shall bring him gain? / And so for me to bear this doom of thine / Has nothing painful" (Arrowsmith, lines 508-12). Antigone does not see meaninglessness in death, but rather is willing to face death for the symbolic gesture of burying her brother. This illustrates her own tragic quest for truth; like Gilgamesh (and Creon), she is frustrated by the rules and order imposed by a mortal government, and feels that it pales in comparison to the divine moral laws such as those regarding the treatment of the dead and the importance of familial relationships and loyalty, which supersedes loyalty to a government.

The final words of the play also illustrate the truth that Antigone and several of the other characters discover: "Great words of boasting bring great punishments; / And so to gray-haired age / Comes wisdom at the last" (Arrowsmith, lines 1536-8). The boasting and other reflections of physical and worldly power, wealth, and glory are ultimately shown to be empty. The fact that it takes suffering to come to this realization is what makes the search for, and the discovery of, truth so inherently tragic. Antigone is, oddly, somewhat more optimistic than the Epic of Gilgamesh in that it does not determine that everything is meaningless, but rather that there are grand universal externalities that provide truth. Antigone, Creon, and others learn, however, that this world is not nearly as meaningful as these other grander principles.

A more well-known...

The character of Shylock is not the protagonist of the play, but he is definitely the central figure, and his search for truth parallels the two above cases in many ways. He is also struggling to make sense of the civil codes of the earthly world and the physical realities of existence on this material planet, while at the same time trying to uphold his own vision of ultimate universal truths. Mostly, Shylock is on a search for justice which he believes to exist in some sort of eternal platonic sense but which he has not been able to find manifested on Earth. Having loaned money to Antonio with the promise of a pound of his flesh should he fail to repay the amount, he pursues the matter in court, demanding payment even when he knows he won't receive it: "So can I give no reason, nor I will not, / More than a lodged hate, and a certain loathing, / I bear Antonio, that I follow thus / A losing suit against him" (Shakespeare, IV, i, 60-3). He is somewhat surprised when t first appears as though he will be able to cut off the flesh as was promised, but the "lawyer" twists the bond by splitting a legal hair and manages to reduce Shylock and his wealth to nothingness. Shylock fails, more than either Gilgamesh or Antigone, in finding the truth he was seeking, and his actions eventually lead him to utter despair. He learns for certain the harsh truth of injustice that he had always perceived.
The end of all tragedies could be seen as the discovery or confirmation of a truth one would rather have avoided. It is usually the denial of this truth, or attempts to alter it, that cause the conflict and tragedy of a text. The three characters mentioned here all had their own relationship with such truths, with their own tragic results.

Works Cited

Arrowsmith, William. Antigone. New York: San Val, 1999.

Mason, Herbert. Gilgamesh. New York: Mariner, 2003.

Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice. Washington D.C.: Folgers, 1997.