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