Antigone: Play Analysis

The actions of the play Antigone by Sophocles occurred in front of a palace in a disaster-prone city called Thebes. The play starts off with Antigone telling her sister Ismene that their brothers killed each other in the war and that King Kreon will only give Eteokles the proper burial and Polyneikes will remain unburied. And if someone tries to give the other brother the proper burial they would be stoned to death. Antigone then implies that she wants to give her brother the proper burial and asks her sister if she would help her. Although, Ismene would want to help she does want to break the law, and does not want her sister to do the same. Antigone, much like Elektra, wants to stand up for what she believes in as well as abide by the gods. Antigone and Ismene’s dynamic is similar to Elektra and Chrysothemis’ in Euripides’

Antigone broke every rule in the book when it came to the way that women were supposed to behave in society back then. Women back then were either seen as slaves, mothers, or concubines, even Kreon told his son Haimon that, “when you lay yourself under a pleasure female the pleasure goes cold soon…and never never never let ourselves be bested by a woman” (lines 740-745 & 772-77), claiming that women are only good for one thing and even that is not enough to trust a woman. But Antigone was not seen as any of these things she believed in something and even though her sister told her not to do it, Antigone knew what was right and defended her beliefs. When Ismene said, “moreover we’re girls girls cannot force their way against men” (lines 70-72) it was obvious that this was one of the reasons that she did not want to help Antigone, she was raised to believe that women did not have the same strength that men have. Antigone defied all “rules” women were taught back then and made sure that not only would she be looked like as a martyr, but as a woman who was not afraid of any