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The Theme Of Loyalty In Antigone

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Antigone Essay In the play, Antigone, by Sophocles many different topics are represented. Some include loyalty, honor, and faith. These topics play big roles in the characters and their fate. These topics help define characters. Loyalty plays the most important role in a character's decisions and actions.
Loyalty is shown in two different ways throughout the play, loyalty towards family and loyalty towards gods. Loyalty is expressed by ISMENE when she states, “By my very nature I cannot possibly take arms against the city”(Sophocles I. 1. 78-79). Ismene is stating that she couldn’t possibly go against the gods and their laws. Ismene is showing loyalty to the gods rather than to her own family. Loyalty is also conveyed through ANTIGONE when …show more content…

Sophceles illustrates loyalty through ANTIGONE when she says, “I won't press you any further. I wouldn’t even let you help me if you had a change of heart. Go on and be the way you choose to. I will bury him. I will have a noble death”(Sophocles I. 3. 68-72). Antigone is showing loyalty to her family by giving her brother a proper burial even when her sister tells her she's in the wrong; she thinks she is doing the right thing. She then continues to say she will give him a proper burial knowing she will receive death as a consequence to her loyalty. Furthermore loyalty towards family is seen through ANTIGONE again when she states, “So if that’s the way My life will end, the pain is nothing. But if I let the corpse-my mothers son-Lie dead, unburied, that would be agony. This way, no agony for me. But me! You think I’ve been a fool? It takes a fool to think that”(Sophocles I. 4. 465-470). In this sequence Antigone knows she had done that right thing because she would be in agony had she not buried her brother. This shows her loyalty towards her family because she knew death was coming and still went through with the decision to bury her brother. Antigone’s loyalty towards her family is the strongest example of loyalty in Antigone; she undoubtedly is going to bury her brother even when knowing death will be a

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