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Character analysis essay on antigone
Short note on family values
Character analysis essay on antigone
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Character analysis essay on antigone
Short note on family values
Character analysis essay on antigone
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Around 441 BCE, the ancient writer Sophocles wrote the tragedy Antigone, a play about loyalty, betrayal, and pride. Throughout the scenes of the play, calamitous occurrences take part, mainly involving the two main characters: Antigone, daughter of Oedipus, and Creon, King of Thebes and uncle of Antigone. Antigone, an independent, uncompromising young woman, simply wants to bury her deceased brother who was recently killed in battle. However, Creon, seeing Antigone’s brother as nothing but a traitor to his country, enforces a law which makes it illegal to give a burial to the remains. Not only does Creon’s unyielding decision cause conflict between himself and Antigone, it will also prove to be a fatal decision.
Though, there lies an element of similarity between the two regarding the theory of family. Synergism in one’s household is of prime importance: Antigone had the courage to go in consort with her ethical predisposition to achieve what she believed was an obligation of the family when she desired to provide her departed brother a suitable burial. She was reprimanded and casted away by the Ruler, which in relation was her own uncle. She acknowledged to the misconduct and felt no repentance for the same.
In the play, Antigone, the title character challenges the king when she decides to bury her brother, Polyneices, who has been named a traitor. King Creon, her uncle, has come to power after the death of Oedipus and his two sons, Eteocles and Polyneices. Creon takes his role as king very seriously as he works to be a pillar of morality and uphold the laws of the city. After he deems Polyneices a traitor, he forbids anyone to properly bury the body: "leave him, unwept, untombed" (line 29) allowing the body to be "a rich sweet sight for the hungry birds beholding and devouring" (30). Throughout this play, several themes, namely human law versus divine law, are at play.
Antigone loved her family and believed they all should be treated equal. Therefore when Creon wouldn’t honor Polynices with a proper burial or allow anyone else to, Antigone knew it was her moral duty to bury him. Antigone told her sister Ismene, “I will bury him myself. And even if I die in the act, that death will be a glory. I will lie with the one I love and loved by him – and outrage sacred to the gods.
Throughout the first and second scene, the theme human law versus divine law separates the two main characters Creon and Antigone, creating a deep conflict between them. At the beginning of the play, despite of the state and the human law, which Creon made, forbids her to do so, Antigone determines to burry her brother, Polynecies. She says to Ismene, “Creon is not enough to stand in my way. ”(15). Antigone believes that Creon has no right in the matter of burial, because it is part of the divine law and she believes divine law rules over human law.
Family is like an army; in an army there needs to be loyalty like how in a family there needs to be loyalty. A person should be more loyal to their family than to their state due to family being there for them, and they themselves should always be there for their family as well. Antigone is loyal to her family the entire time, unlike her sister Ismene, but in the end Ismene fixes her wrongs, and they are both there for one another other even when it comes to death. No one backs out and chooses the state; they choose each other, which is what family does. Antigone went to her sister Ismene for help to bury Polyneices body.
In the story Antigone by Sophocles, Antigone has two brothers, but both were treated differently when they died. Eteocles died peacefully with him being buried in dirt while Polyneices was just lying there to die in a terrible way. Antigone finds a way to bury her brother, as she goes to bury her brother she gets caught, it didn’t go the way she wanted it to. Throughout the whole story that came with ups and downs, Sophocles tries to show that how the family ties with Antigone wanting to bury her brother, Antigone arguing with Creon, and the argument between father and son, Creon and Haemon. Antigone wants to bury her brother so that he can die in peace and not die without honor.
Creon ignores the advice of his fellow political officials when issuing a royal edict regarding Eteocles’s burial. Eteocles, Antigone’s brother, is entitled by the gods to be granted a proper burial, however Creon’s pride drives him to outlaw the burial, thinking Eteocles is a traitor simply because he owns a legitimate claim to the throne of Thebes. Like Agamemnon, Creon constantly makes decisions and conducts himself while influenced by his own hubris. This ultimately leads to the detriment of Antigone’s relatioinship with the king. Antigone defies Creon’s newly issued burial edict and does what she thinks is right: granting her brother Eteocles an honorable burial.
In the play Antigone, written by Sophocles, burial customs of the ancient Greeks play an extensive role. The women of the family perform the burial rites, and believed that if their distinct methods were not followed, the soul is destined to suffer between worlds until the correct rites were performed. Antigone, the sister of Polynices and Eteocles, is aware of this and is not going to stand by and let her brother, Polynices, linger between worlds in pain, after being killed by Eteocles. With her ambition and determination she does the deed, and of doing so she follows the god's laws, but breaks Creon’s laws in the midst of it. Creon is also aware of the burial rites but still decides, through his stubbornness, that Polynices shall not be performed these rites, because of his actions against Thebes.
Antigone had conviction that she needed to obey the laws of the gods because they were of higher power, rather than obey King Creon’s decree of leaving her brother, Polyneices, without burial rights. In the Greek world, A dead person’s soul would never rest without proper burial rites. Antigone felt that it was the will of the gods for Polyneices to be buried and would rather obey the laws of the gods and bury her brother’s corpse rather than the laws of a man. Antigone is fearless, and she tells king Creon that she buried Polyneices without remorse for disobeying his law: “I did not think anything which you proclaimed strong enough to let a mortal override the gods and their unwritten and unchanging laws”(Sophocles 272). Antigone knew that she would be put to death if she buried Polyneices but she would rather die doing the right thing, rather than living and being surrounded with evil.
Two Sisters, Two Views Ismene from Antigone once said, “That two sisters lost two brothers, a double death”. In the play written by Sophocles, there are two brothers, one honored and one dishonored. Although not specifically stated at first, their sisters, Ismene and Antigone, are now deciding on a tough decision. This decision is whether or not to bury the dishonored brother, which is where the two sisters part views. Antigone and Ismene both feel the need to honor their brother with burial, but disagree on whether or not to disobey man’s law.
In the play Antigone, Sophocles demonstrates the conflict between family and God through the characters of Antigone, Ismene and Creon. Antigone tries to persuade her sister Ismene that their brother Polyneices should be honored and have a proper burial while Creon uses both logical and emotional appeals to justify whether or not Polynices should have a proper burial. Ismene also uses both logical and emotional appeals to best respect her brother Polyneices along with the laws. Nowadays, family always comes first and like Antigone, some people would say they would die for
In Antigone, written by Sophocles, Antigone faces the consequences of burying her brother against the king’s rule. The king, Kreon, banned the burial of her brother Polyneices because he was considered a traitor. In Antigone, each character uses one’s mind in ways that can be recognized through stages on Kohlberg’s Moral Hierarchy. Antigone, a loyal and loving sister manages to remain at about a stage five or six throughout the entire play. In the play, Antigone, written by Sophocles, the author conveys various moral hierarchy stages through character traits, reasoning, and moral development within the character Antigone.
Antigone believes she should have the right of her brother’s burial. Creon states, “No one shall burry him, no one mourn for him” (Sophocles 2) illustrating that Polyneicis is irrelevant in the city of Thebes. The law in Greek society is a female should not have power or freedom over any circumstance. Antigone demands rights over her brother and will not accept
In the play, Antigone by Sophocles, Antigone argues that her older brother should be given the respect of a proper burial to be able to pass through Purgatory. Antigone supports her argument by using Pathos and Ethos to persuade the king Creon to go back on the law of anyone attempting to Polyneices a burial they will be punished. Antigone’s purpose is to give her brother the burial that will allow him to pass onto the afterlife she believes in. Antigone uses an argumentative tone for the proper burial of her brother. In seeking a proper burial for her brother, Polyneices, Antigone’s standards of divine justice provide a more effective argument than that of the king