Antigone Essay

Antigone was written in approximately 441 BC by Sophocles. Antigone is typically presented as the tragic Heroine, and therefore the main cause of the tragic conflict, yet I would argue that it is Ismene that contributes most strongly to the tragic conflict in the play, and that she is the tragic heroine. I will explore this by examining the effects of her contrasting dialogue with Antigone, her status as a Hegelian Heroine and her powerlessness have on the tragic conflict of the play.

In the first scene we meet Antigone and Ismene, the only remaining children of Jocasta and Oedipus, coping with the shame of their parents and brothers legacy. The reader is immediately given a hint as to what Ismene’s character will be in the first stage direction;

The passion displayed in this language, seen in the use of both sibilance, dentals and plosives in Line 24 ‘Stoned to death in the public square’, creating an impression of deep rooted anger suggests that from the very outset Antigone could fit in with the Hegelian view of Tragedy: she is a tragic heroine, her flaw is her anger and passion blinding her to self preservation and therefore she cannot see a way in which not burying her brother would be the correct choice. This is the common view of Antigone, however I believe that it is Ismene who truly fits this ideal, and this can be seen in her language: Ismene is more emotive than her sister, using more exclamatory punctuation ‘oh, my sister!’ (L36), alongside the use of more labial sounds ‘look at the two of us, left so alone’, creating a mournful, melancholy effect ultimately more sympathetic than Antigone’s anger. It also emphasises that where Antigone is focused on her anger and her brother, Ismene is more focused on grieving and protecting her sister. This could imply that Ismene, a more sympathetic tragic heroine’s fatal flaw is her inability to see past her grief to protect her sister