ipl-logo

Antigone: Gender Roles In Today's Society

760 Words4 Pages

How many times have you been in a situation where gender roles played a major factor? Gender roles affect every aspect of our life. The gender roles of males and females both develop as a pattern of behavior based on genes. Males and females are expected to follow certain gender roles in today’s society. In the play Antigone, the main character shows a simple example of a courageous woman defying her gender limits. Gender roles are very important by creating tension in the story. Antigone is a great illustration of how gender roles can be defied and overcome, just as women in today’s society are shattering the glass ceiling.
In the beginning of ancient Greece, women had as many rights as the slaves. Women would live under the control of their father, husband or other male relatives. Women would not leave their household, but instead spent all day taking care of their house. Men had the upper hand. Women were traditionally passive. Women were in control of staying home to take care of their children. Men provided food for the family through the day. Women focused their lives towards labor and religion. “Men had the dominant role in public life in ancient Greece” (Rymer). This system in society conceited women to take care of the house while the men took care of harder things. Women were not allowed outside without a male escort. Women were treated like slaves while taking care of housework. However, women are still facing gender roles through society today. Gender roles

Show More
Related

  • Antigone Gender Roles Essay

    648 Words  | 3 Pages

    Antigone and The Importance of Gender in Ancient Greek Culture In Ancient Greece, there was a social hierarchy onto which everyone fell in one category or another. There were the free and the enslaved, the Greeks and the foreigners, the rich and the poor. Gender was an important aspect in this hierarchical society in which Sophocles’ Antigone (Sophocles) takes place. The men had their roles as the leaders of society, participating in politics, law, and the military.

    Read More

  • Comparing Homer's Iliad And The Code Of Hammurabi

    704 Words  | 3 Pages

    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”.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Sexism In Antigone

    742 Words  | 3 Pages

    Him putting Antigone to death because she went against his power clearly shows his feminism towards women. This also shows that all males had full power over society, economy, and women, which isn’t fair. Antigone displays her feminist qualities when she goes against the most powerful male, the king Creon. Her going against him shows her disrespect for Creon, her doing this and speaking like a male figure shows her push for equality between the sexes. Antigone throughout the whole play pushed for equality but she never seemed to get what she wants.

    Read More

  • Roles Of Women In Unbroken And The Book Thief

    1064 Words  | 5 Pages

    (Book 13, 396-403) Greek literature sometimes showed signs of female empowerment, but most mortal female characters were nothing more than wives or maids. Antigone was one of the few exceptions. She was strong, smart, and didn’t care what people thought of her. She was fearless, unlike her sister Ismene, who felt limited in her options because she was a woman. She did not think a woman could ever bury her brother’s body,

    Read More

  • Gender Roles In Homer's Odyssey

    491 Words  | 2 Pages

    Women in The Odyssey Gender roles, specifically of women, were a little different back in 700 B.C. They played more of a typical role, expected to get married and have kids at a young age. They were expected to take care of the house and children, while their husbands were out fighting wars. However, while women in The Odyssey were greatly valued for their beauty, Homer reveals that they also had to be intelligent to be successful in their lives.

    Read More

  • Comparing Women In Aristophanes Lysistrata And Homer's Odyssey

    1005 Words  | 5 Pages

    In Ancient Greek Civilization, women were viewed as submissive. A man always controlled the women; that either being the Father or Husband. Women were forced to stay in the house and complete all household duties. Women were not even granted the right to attend assemblies, participate in politics, or even represent themselves in court. Having little to no overall power in your society can have a huge burden on Women but this can also fuel certain Women to strive to change the society they live in.

    Read More

  • Antigone Sacrifice Essay

    385 Words  | 2 Pages

    But Antigone did so anyways knowing the consequences were going to be brutal. This is significant because the sacrificial death of Antigone, who challenged a male counterpart is basically inevitable. This play challenged the beliefs of women during that day and age, giving them the power to criticize and proceed against an opposing male force. Without the sacrificial death, Antigone would only consist of the overpowering actions of King Creon. Her decisions and actions on challenging him was one of the main themes of the play.

    Read More

  • Women's Role In Antigone Essay

    736 Words  | 3 Pages

    It is well known that for much of history, females have been largely oppressed and given few rights, unlike the male gender. Traditionally, a women’s role in society was to be a submissive housewife and to raise children. In Sophocles’ play, Antigone, a young woman goes against the law to give her dead brother a proper burial, defying the typical role expected of a female during this time period. Antigone can be seen as a role model for women because she knows her own mind, stands up to her uncle, and sacrifices herself for someone she loves. Women during this time period were expected to listen to the men in society and follow their rules.

    Read More

  • Gender Roles In The Bacchae

    1551 Words  | 7 Pages

    In Euripides’s The Bacchae and in William Shakespeare’s As You Like It, I found the gender roles in these particular plays to be very interesting because this was my first exposure to cross-dressing in works of literature. In The Bacchae, women play a huge role because women are often portrayed as feminine and inferior in many past works, however, in The Bacchae, the women of Thebes decide to rebel against the men and join the Greek God of grape harvesting, wine, fertility, and partying, in the woods. The women were manipulated by Dionysus and were turned into maenads because they joined Dionysus and rejected the norms for women, to stay in their place and they all went from the first world they were living in, Thebes, to the second world,

    Read More

  • Women In Ancient Greece Essay

    1413 Words  | 6 Pages

    In ancient times, there is a general sense that women were simply items and slaves to their husbands. Ancient Greece specifically has a renowned reputation of favoring men. Men possessed the dominant role in public affairs and events while most women were pressured to stay at home. Very few records extensively discuss women; the records focus mostly on men. Despite the lacking records, it is certain how ancient Greeks viewed their women and their relationships with their male counterparts.

    Read More

  • Gender Roles In Antigone

    483 Words  | 2 Pages

    Gender roles are important in the play Antigone because it determines where you fit in society. Gender roles also determine if you have a freedom of choice. Antigone does not have freedom because she is a female.

    Read More

  • Essay On Gender Roles In Medea By Euripides

    799 Words  | 4 Pages

    Explaining why the women are being treated unfairly and the outcomes that can happen to women in the Greek society. How men are portrayed in Greek society. Explaining why men have different expectations than women and the political aspects of the male gender role in Greek society. The effects of the non-traditional roles the men and women played in the Medea play. Also, discuss the

    Read More

  • Women's Roles In Athens And The Hellenistic Era

    569 Words  | 3 Pages

    Clearly, Sparta and Hellenistic women had more freedom and social rights than Athens women. The reason of how this phenomena occurred might be that at that period of time, Athens had the largest population of Attica. This indicates that the in this male community in Athens, the males could carry on almost all of the responsibilities of a society while the women could just stay at home and serve the men while they took part in public life. However, in Sparta and the Hellenistic era which there were not so much people around, women’s role would be more than simply taking care of household and children, they would need to shoulder some responsibility for their society, which brought along freedom and rights for

    Read More

  • Essay On Role Of Women In Ancient Society

    981 Words  | 4 Pages

    Over generations, the role of women in society has shifted and changed immensely, improving upon many aspects of rights and values that women have. The changes occurred gave women opportunities to provide ideas, to have the same rights as men, giving women freedom, leading to many contributions of many significant and valuable events. But from current roles of women being equal to those of men, how women stood in ancient society significantly differs and contrast with ours today. Throughout history, the role and significance of women were always outweighed by the dominance and influence of men. The role of women in ancient times varied throughout, depending on the place and area in the world, in which women had different roles and impacts on their own society.

    Read More

  • Essay On The Role Of Women In Antigone

    1335 Words  | 6 Pages

    The play Antigone written by Sophocles is a Greek tragedy which incorporates themes of divine law vs. man made law ,conventional role of a woman vs. a defiant role portrayed by a woman, but the very essence of the play and other major themes are created with the defiance of the conventional role of women shown by Antigone. This is the primary aim of the essay. A little insight into the Greek society gives us a brief idea about the status of women and help do a comparative study with the unique character of Antigone and her role in the development of the plot. Women in ancient Greek were considered inferior to men in every sphere ,from the intellect to the physical state. Their freedom was monitored by the dominating male in the family

    Read More

More about Antigone: Gender Roles In Today's Society

Open Document