Antigone Polynices and Eteocles, the two brothers of Antigone and Ismene, have both been killed in battle. Creon, the ruler of Thebes, has announced that Eteocles will be honored for defending his city while Polynices will be disgraced for invading. Rebellious Polynices’ body was not to be buried and would lay out to rot and become food for wild animals. He also declares that anyone who attempts to bury Polynices will be publicly stoned to death. Ismene and Antigone are now the last children of their father Oedipus. In the opening of the play, Antigone brings Ismene outside the city gates late at night for a secret meeting. Antigone wants to bury Polynices' body despite Creon’s demands, but Ismene, being the rule-follower that she is, refuses to help her. She fears the death penalty and chooses to obey the ruler’s orders. Antigone angrily storms off after Ismene’s rejection to bury her …show more content…
Antigone arrives in the city of Thebes to find out that her brothers are dead, Polynices’ body is unburied, and there’s a royal command against burying him. The conflict arrives when Antigone decides that she’s going to go against her uncle’s law and bury Polynices. When she asks her sister Ismene for help, she refuses. She comes to conclusion that if she was going to bury her brother, then she was going to have to do it alone. Antigone’s situation only gets worse when Creon finds out about her plan to bury Polynice. The climax of the play occurs when Creon sentences Antigone to death and locks her away. Her fate was secure, you were never allowed to disagree with the king. Although Antigone was destined to die, Teiresias and Haemon had hope in freeing her and pled with Creon to let her go. The turnaround of Creon’s decision suggests final hope to Antigone. The play concludes in a sad tragedy when Creon arrives to release Antigone only to find out that she, his wife, and Haemon have all killed themselves. He was too