Conducti-gone “Conductors may of course be instruments as well as victims of the divine lightning.” In Sophocles’ Antigone, the protagonist, Antigone, is both the instrument and the victim of the divine lightning. The suffering imposed upon Antigone by the gods allows the reader to recognize the discrepancy between religious devotion and divine reciprocation. Sophocles uses dialogue to portray Antigone as civilly disobedient, idealistic, and a martyr in the name of religion. Despite Antigone's characteristics, the gods are cruel to her. This discrepancy reveals Antigone's role as a catalyst of the play's tragic vision. Antigone disobeys the law set by her tyrannical uncle, Creon, to maintain the laws that were, from her perspective, set by the gods. Creon forbids the burying of Polynices, Antigone's …show more content…
The Leader describes the religious “wild passions raging through [Antigone]” (Sophocles 112). Antigone's dominant characteristic is her idealism of the gods. While many would lose faith in religion after facing such trouble despite devoutness, she upholds her faith in the gods, believing that, according to the gods, “death longs for the same rites for all” (Sophocles 87). Antigone sees the gods as the epitomes of morality. Her idealization of the gods' ethics contrasts with their actual dispositions. The gods actually help expose Antigone to her uncle so she can be punished, as the Sentry reveals, "Twisting a great dust-storm up from the earth, a black plague of the heavens, filling the plain, ripping the leaves off every tree in sight, choking the air and sky. We squinted hard and took our whipping from the gods" (Sophocles 109). After this divine-instigated dust storm, the whereabouts of Antigone are disclosed. Not only do the gods not assist her in her quest to honor their wishes but they also reveal her actions to the Sentry, and therefore, her uncle, leading to her
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Show MoreShe believed that God’s laws were higher than man’s laws so she was ‘pleasing those [she] should please most’ (Blondell, 23). While arguing with her sister, Ismene, about breaking the law, Antigone demonstrated her determination to bury her brother because she knew that it was the moral thing to do, regardless of the deadly outcome. She was willing to perform the ‘crime of piety’ (Blondell, 23) – the crime that was ‘honored by the gods’ (Blondell, 23). To her, following God’s laws was the most justified even if it meant that she had to break man’s laws, because the God’s laws were ‘not for now or yesterday, but live forever’ (Blondell, 38).
Antigone, niece to the high king Creon, has gone rogue. The day before, Our high king, Creon, decreed Polynices would not be buried. Polynices was a traitor to the throne, and was properly punished as such. Antigone, angry with this decree, buried her brother against the king’s wishes. The burial that took place was a simple one, but just enough that Polynices soul would be at rest.
Conner Johnson Mr. Milroy English 10b Hon. 17 January 2023 Ambiguous character Antigone is a morally ambiguous character who plays a pivotal role in the play Antigone by Sophocles. Being the play’s lead character, She is the starting cause of all the struggles in the drama. Violating the law is an action Antigone sees as necessary to fit what she believes is morally right, consequently creating contrast in her character of whether she is morally just or conversely purely evil.
“…even if she were closer than my sister’s child, closer than any who shares my family’s chapel, she and her sister will not escape the worst fate” by saying that, he believes she will stop with the arguments and simply follow his laws however, it’s quite the opposite what happens next. She mocks him even more by questioning, “Do you want something more than killing me?” Later on into the scene, they start discussing the death of Polynices and Eteocles, while Creon believes that Polynices shouldn’t deserve to be buried and that the gods wouldn’t like him because he is bad person. “The good don’t want to share honors with the bad” However, in the other hand Antigone replies by saying that both of them should be buried, this causes Creon to enrage and exclaim “No woman will rule
When people demonstrate devotion or loyalty, they typically take pride in whatever they support because they think it is worthy of their devotion. People today take pride in their beliefs, but so did people a long time ago. In the play Antigone by Sophocles, the story follows Antigone, the niece of Creon, the king of Thebes, as she supports her beliefs. Antigone’s brothers Polynices and Eteocles were recently in a war against each other, Eteocles fighting for Thebes, and Polynices taking people from Argos to fight against Thebes.
The question of who Antigone is lies between the family and the public. However, Antigone is left with no choice but make a decision. This problem is balanced around making a decision on things that are not easy. Generally, the author
Antigone’s actions are motivated by her allegiance to her family, moral conscience, and religion amid Creon’s political injustice and tyranny. Antigone’s actions motivate her to demand Ismene to prove whether she is “a true sister or a traitor to your family” (26-27). Antigone maintains loyalty to her brother despite his actions which threatened Thebes. Her inability to bear the thought of her brother’s corpse being picked apart by animals and not being honored with proper funeral rites forces her to act. Antigone’s fierce allegiance to her family is laid bare as she is willing to sacrifice her life to honor her brother and defy the law in an act that she believes is morally just.
In the play, Antigone, daughter of Oedipus learns about the death of her two brothers (Eteocles and Polynices).Creon, the new king of Thebes passed a decree to the city on the burial of the two brothers. In the decree, Creon declares that Eteocles body should be buried with honor and fame for his courage of saving the city from the enemy. Whiles Polynices body is left unburied and rotting for beasts to feed on because he came to destroy the city and enslave the people. Antigone defies Creon 's decree, buries Polynices body and gets caught. Creon imprisons her
In the play Antigone, Sophocles demonstrates the conflict between family and God through the characters of Antigone, Ismene and Creon. Antigone being ambitious and strong willed throughout the play, fights for his brothers honor and proper burial while Ismene on the other hand, is more timid fears the consequences that may occur if the laws are broken. For Creon he is the King and holds most power, until the Gods feel he is incapable. Antigone, Ismene and Creon all use logical and emotional appeals to achieve a compromise to either bury Polynices or not.
Antigone's actions consistently display her dedication to the will of the gods, and Creon's behaviour steadily exhibits his fierce devotion to state laws. Thus, this Greek tragedy compellingly establishes and thoroughly explores the intricate and perplexing relationship between the two themes by utilizing the literary device of
In the classic play by Sophocles, Antigone is a tragic story of the bold Antigone who defied her uncle, King Creonʻs, edict by burying her brother, Polyneices, who died attacking the city of Thebes, trying to take the power away from their brother, Eteocles, who refused to share the throne with Polyneices. Even though Antigone knew that going against Creon and burying her brother would not end well for her, she still choose to risk her life to do what is right. After being caught breaking the law, Antigone is appointed to be locked away, isolated in a cave until she dies, but she hangs herself at the end. At the same time, things for Creon are not looking good, as everyone around him seems to be against him in his decision for punishing Antigone. Everyone Creon cares about kills themselves from a curse that is put on Creon for not following the Godsʻ laws.
DP1: Within this Narrative, Antigone frequently uses the emotional values of others to convince them of what she believes to be right. The first illustration of this phenomenon is when Antigone compares her willingness to face death as the result of giving her brother an honorable burial, to her sister Ismene 's unwillingness in doing the same. The main character feels as though it is her personal and moral obligation to retrieve the afterlife that’s been taken from her brother. Therefore, she does not agree in abiding by Creon 's man-made legislation and makes it her mission to concede to the laws of the gods.
He finally discovers that his refusal to see past his own opinion is his downfall. He punished Antigone and mocked those who questioned his law, including his trusted prophet, Teiresias. The prophet clearly warned him, “You shall pay back corpse for corpse, flesh of your own flesh.” (scene 5 line 77-80). He would pay for his crime against the laws of the gods.
Sophocles’ Antigone is known for being a very politically charged play, staged and restaged during times of political unrest. However, Antigone is not only a play about the politics of the polis and a tyrannical government, but about a young woman who only wanted to do right by her dead brother and give him the rights that he deserved. As Antigone is being sentenced to death, she makes the statement of “I am a stranger!” (Sophocles, 956) because her uncle, the new king of Thebes, and a group of men meant to represent the citizen of Thebes tell her that she is as much an outsider as a slave, and that her behavior is not one that is accepted in Thebes. Moreover, her long family history alienates her from her fellow Thebans, who have not suffered like she had, though a woman born of the gods has experienced a
She does not understand why she is being treated so unjustly for trying to do the right thing. The chorus in the play tries convincing Antigone that justice is behaving in accordance to Creon’s laws but Antigone is stubborn and sustains to her convictions. Even though Antigone ends up dying she dies achieving her goal of wanting to bury her brother properly. Mostly everyone in this play goes against what the main character feels is justly because they want to follow the kings laws and they believe she is acting immorally. Antigone is not acting immorally, she is doing the right thing to follow the law of the gods.