In Antigone by Sophocles, Antigone and Creon are the main characters, each a girl and a boy. Antigone is an assertive and bold young woman in her community where women are seen as just subjects. Creon perceives women as beneath him. Sophocles portrays the women in the play with no rights nor any freedom. Gender roles are portrayed over and over in the play by blatantly disrespecting women and giving men all the power. In ancient Greece (Where and when the play was set), women were expected to be obedient and submissive, they were considered lower than men and were not allowed to do everything a man could. On the other hand men were seen as big, strong, and brave heroes. These gender roles are greatly shown throughout Antigone. Creon is the …show more content…
Not only is Creon and Antigone’s relationship affected but Ismene’s relationship with Antigone is also affected throughout as she has to pick between her obedience to the King of Thebes and his laws and her own sister’s loyalty. “We are only women, we cannot fight with men, Antigone! The law is strong, we must give in to the law in this thing, and in worse.” (Sophocles 50) Ismene is a rule follower and does not like conflict, she loves her sister but sometimes that isn’t enough to not obey Creon. Ismene just wants Antigone to drop it and forget about anything related to disobeying Creon, so they are both safe and don’t get killed. “What do I care for in life when you are dead?” (440) Ismene wants to take half of the blame for the burial of Polyneices but Antigone does not like that because if she refused to help at first and feels like she just wants all the attention, Antigone and Ismene's relationship is not the closest now because of the way Ismene is acting, trying to get the attention on
(Sophocles 193). Antigone is confident and even surprised that Ismene wasn't willing to join her in her protest. Creon is a tyrant that was power hungry, and too controlling of his family and the people who lived in his city. Antigone saw this overuse of power and could stand to bear it anymore. She had to bury her brother because that was what she believed was right.
Stop wasting time. You servants, take her in. It’s very important to keep women strictly disciplined” (Sophocles 15). Creon believes that women should know their place, so therefore they know how to listen and not break rules. In this circumstance Antigone was the example of a woman out of control without discipline.
In Greek society, women had few rights and hardly moved from their place next to men. Antigone defies all stereotypes and traditional images of women in Greek society. Creon feels she is a menace to him and eventually sentences her to death for treason.
Besides Ismene, Antigone is completely alone which can cause her to want to honor and be loyal to her family more. In the prologue, it states, "... and Iocaste died, his mother and wife at once: she twisted the cords that strangled her life; and our two brothers died, each killed by the other’s sword, and we are left..." (Prologue.38-42). This quote shows just how much of Antigone and Ismene’s family is already dead. Most of the family was killed by fate and the people already dislike Oedipus. Now that Antigone is left with no one, she has to honor what she has left of her family.
Men have a lot of pride in Antigone, they believe that women are secondary in society. With men talking down to women; for example, Creon says to Antigone “Pride? In a slave?... Who is the man here…”
King Creon was unjust with his actions towards Antigone, not only was he punishing Antigone but, he was also going to punish her sis Ismene by default. I believe the main reasons why he was going to punish Ismene was because she was related to Antigone by blood, and the fact that she was a woman; “Creon: You too Ismene, Snake in my ordered house, sucking my blood stealthily—and all the time I never knew that these two sisters were aiming at my throne!” (Abcarian, Klotz and Cohen 358). Pleading their case, which has no agenda of “aiming at his throne”, Creon is only worried about losing his power but in reality, it’s much more than power, I see it as males losing their authority over women.
What is worth mentioning in Sophocles’ play is that he not only showed the weak side of women but also the strong ones. For example, Ismene is the traditional role of women in ancient Greek—coward, fear of men power and feeble. For Ismene, "we must remember we were born women, not meant to strive with men" (Antigone). She even chose to die with Antigone while hearing her sentence, for she was afraid that she would be alone, she could not be able to fight against Creon, this men-dominant society. In contrast, her sister Antigone presents the “women power”.
In the scene in which Creon will not allow her brother to be buried. This goes against her personal beliefs she confronts Creon when she says “if I had allowed my own mothers son to rot, an unburied corpse that would have been an agony.” Creon wouldn’t allow Antigone brother to be buried even tho Antigone felt it was the right thing to do. Antigone is talking to Ismene about burying her brother but Ismene tells her to keep the idea a secret but Antigone disagrees and says “But I know I’ll please the ones I’m duty bound to please.
Creon throughout the whole play shows a discrimination toward women, in the end he ends up undergoing a terrible downfall. In the play, Antigone is the protagonist who most of the sexism is appointed toward. Creon shows a lot of feminism toward Antigone not only because of her criminal action but also that the fact that she is a female. Creon goes on to send Antigone to a cell deep in the middle of the woods because she went against his law. The fact that she was a female and went against a man’s power makes it seem worse than it actually has to be, all she did was pay her respect to her brother because no one would.
Antigone and Creon have an ongoing power struggle throughout the entirety of Antigone. Creon finds himself struggling to control Antigone's actions but she feels as though he did
In ancient times, all over the world, woman were considered inferior to men. Woman in ancient Greece, as well as in other religions, did not have any political rights, official power, and were not educated. Becasue of this, Antigone’s gender is a problem from Creon since he does not recognize her
Antigone is driven by her sense of duty and loyalty to her family, while Creon is motivated by his desire to maintain his authority and uphold the laws of the land. As a result, they fight over the issue of burying Antigone's brother, with Antigone insisting on burying him while Creon refuses to allow it. Sophocles achieves a deeper understanding of Antigone and Creon's characters by showing us their conversations with other characters. For example, Antigone's conversation with her sister, Ismene, highlights her determination and intense sense of duty.
Throughout the play, Creon and Antigone are very much at odds with each other ,but yet both characters show pride that is evident throughout the story. Even when Creon and Antigone express their pride for different reasons, both are lash out at people around them in a similar fashion. During the start of the play, Antigone finds out that her brother, Polyneices, is dead and Creon is not willing to bury him by enforcing an interdict. Antigone comes quickly to the conclusion that she must bury her brother to honor her family. Ismene, trying to keep an eye out for her sister, tries to talk Antigone out of burying her brother.
Gender roles play a significant part through ought the play Antigone due to the fact that men are treated on a higher scale than women. Sophocles portrays women as people with no rights nor freedom. Antigone is on a destiny for burial rights of her brother Polyneicis. Gender roles are expressed throughout the play Antigone by disrespecting women and men having power and freedom.
Ismene has an internal conflict for not trying to help her sister when first asked, which is the reason for her trying to take some blame in the acts Antigone had done. Antigone and Ismene are both to be put to death but Creon relents on the executing off Ismene. Before Creon did so, Ismene is scorned by Antigone for her late attempt for trying to be righteous. Ismene has always believed in loyalty and has always been loyal to her family. Even though she made a late decision and it is rejected by Antigone she is still loyal to her family by offering her help after she denied it to Antigone the first