ipl-logo

Characters: Good And Evil In Sophocles's Antigone

1098 Words5 Pages

Every day our society labels people as either good or bad. As human beings we strive to reach the standard of good, to be a good person, to be the hero of our own story. Yet frequently we fall short. We mess up. The Greek playwright Sophocles brilliantly provided an answer to these moral mysteries in his work, Antigone: “Think: all men make mistakes,/ But a good man yields when he/ Knows his course is wrong,/ And repairs the evil: The only/ Crime is pride” (Sophocles). Understanding what Sophocles is trying to explain in this passage isn’t extremely difficult to decipher. We as humans are all bound to make mistakes. There is no other way about it. But when a good person recognises that they have made a mistake, or have done wrong, they fix …show more content…

The entire driving force of the play is Macbeth’s desperate desire to become king. And in order to achieve that, he must get rid of the current king, King Duncan. He expresses these desires in act one during which he is in a discussion and says aside “Stars, hide your fires;/ Let not light see my back and deep desires./ The eye wink at the hand, yet let that be/ Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see” (I.iv.57-60). From early on Macbeth exhibits these evil minded ambitions. He experiences guilt and questions whether or not he should go through with killing Duncan. If Macbeth were a good man, he would “yield when he/ Knows his course is wrong” (Sophocles), but he does not yield. Macbeth recognises that killing Duncan is wrong, but he does it anyway, therefore making it awfully conflicting to support him, as he is the central character of the play, thus the title. It is the action of killing and going through with his thoughts that makes him good or evil. We all have questionable thoughts go through our heads, but it is the decision to act upon them which makes a person good or the opposite. After the fact, Macbeth does not repair the evil, he does not confess. Macbeth basks in the glory of being the new king. Not only does he give in to the temptation of evil and personal gain, he is too prideful to own up to his wrongdoings and attempt to right his

Show More
Related
398 Words | 2 Pages

In an excerpt from Antigone by Sophocles, the speaker, Teiresias is stating that a good man is one who makes a mistake, recognizes it, and corrects it. Also, the opposite of a good man is one who knows they have made a mistake yet fails to correct it because of their pride. The Mayor of New Orleans, Mitch Landrieu recently spoke about why the statue of a Confederate general is being taken down. Landrieu says “We still seem to find so many excuses for not doing the right thing. Again, remember President Bush’s words, “A great nation does not hide its history.

Read More
721 Words | 3 Pages

‘How should one live?’ ‘Is it possible to make a rational choice between personal decision and external constraints?’ and ‘Can practical rationality be used to avoid conflict?’ These are questions that Nussbaum tries to uncover through the tragic play, Sophocles’ Antigone, of Ancient Greek theatre. Nussbaum heavily focuses on the simplification committed by the protagonists, Creon and Antigone, as they attempt to ward off conflict through simplifying their “commitments and love”.

Read More
723 Words | 3 Pages

Lindsey Harris Joy Fisk English 9 5 March 2023 The Right Thing May Cause Terrible Outcomes: Analysis of Antigone in Antigone by Sophicles When her own family turned against her, Antigone had to make a decision between divine and human laws which would determine life or death when knowing that neglecting the right thing will allow her to live. In Antigone, by Sophocles, Antigone is a young woman who goes against human laws to do what she thinks is right to bury her brother knowing that the consequence is death. She has a brave, selfless, and stubborn heart that she follows only wanting to do what's right, causing a tragic ending for her and those around. Antigone is very brave for all of her actions, for she is the only one who would dare go against human law and stand up to Creon, the king, who is not afraid to punish anyone who goes against him.

Read More
828 Words | 4 Pages

The play titled "Antigone" by Sophocles is about hardships that the main character Antigone has to go through with her two brothers killing each other because, after the king, their father Oedipus, dies, the sons now have to rule the City of Thebes. The brothers agreed that they would lead for a year, and since Eteocles was the oldest, he headed first, but when it was Polyneices's turn, Eteocles didn't want to give the throne up. So they ended up going to war and killing each other. Unlike Polyneices, Eteocles celebrates his death while Polyneices rot in the field. Antigone is trying to have a proper burial for her brother Polyneices, but her evil uncle Creon does not want Polyneices to have a proper burial because they both went against the

Read More
1064 Words | 5 Pages

What Macbeth essentially says here is that his only motivation for killing King Duncan is his ambition. Many would argue that it was not Macbeth’s ambition that caused him to kill King Duncan but instead was his wife using her femininity in order to charm Macbeth into doing as she says . However, Macbeth’s hunger for power was already seen when King Duncan gives Malcolm the title of Prince of Cumberland. Macbeth tells himself that he must not reveal his true intentions: “Stars, hide your fires! Let not light see my black and deep desires.”

Read More
484 Words | 2 Pages

“Let not light see my black and deep desires: The eye that wink at the hand; yet let that be which the eye fears,when it is done, to see” (Shakespeare 1.4 58-60). Macbeth is admitting that he has his own hidden desires and wants to become king because of his own passion and drive. He is trying to justify what he knows he will have to do in order to make himself king. He knows that he has to kill to become king and to keep his throne, and is trying to convince himself that this will all be worth it in the end when he becomes king. Some would argue that Lady Macbeth made him king, but his own desires were truly what fuelled his ambition to do whatever it took to make himself king.

Read More
215 Words | 1 Pages

The excerpt above from Antigone basically states that a good man is one that swallows his pride and fixes his mistake. Pride is an emotional feeling that stems from a persons satisfication of his/her own achievements. In July 1, 2015 a dentist/hunter from Minnesota killed a belevoed lion named Cecil in Zimmabawae. Cecil was approxiametly 13 years and and the dentist Walter Palmer paid his guide about 50,000 in order for him to lure the lion and kill him. Cecil was tracked, shot and killed with an arrow, he was also skinned and his head was removed.

Read More
1173 Words | 5 Pages

The Greek tragedy Antigone by Sophocles takes place in Thebes during the aftermath of the reign of Oedipus. Kreon is the ruler of Thebes and the uncle to Antigone yet the familial bond is disregarded mostly due to the shame of the incestuous nature of Kreon’s nieces and nephews. After a civil war of Antigone’s brothers, which results in both of their deaths, Polyneices is left unburied; this is the beginning of the tragedy. Both Kreon and Antigone made many questionable decisions that led to the death and suffering of many but I sympathize with Antigone because her decisions were based on her emotions, morals, and the perceived god’s law.

Read More
1332 Words | 6 Pages

Justice is an underlying idea that humans revolve around. It is our sole concept that constructs how we think and behave. Justice creates morals and therefore how we judge those around us. If we didn’t have justice, our society would be in chaos and completely unruly. When identifying what is just, there are quite a few traits that can be clearly spotted.

Read More
105 Words | 1 Pages

Tragedy is intended to make catharsis by making the listeners sympathize with the tragic hero. The point of a tragic hero is to create feelings of pity and fear. A powerful tragedy leads to the audience mirroring the rise and fall of a tragic character. In the play Antigone by Sophecles, Antigone has some tragic flaws working against her; for instance, her loyalty to the gods, her stubbornness and pride, and her familial loyalty were the conspirators on Antigone’s life. Antigone’s stubbornness is a good trait for heroic character but, regrettably, it gets herself in a big trouble and also affects other characters as well.

Read More
1057 Words | 5 Pages

Macbeth is a play that is written by William Shakespeare in 1606 and the main goal is to make the audience members or readers think that excessive ambition will have horrible consequences in the end. Over the course of the book Macbeth receives prophecies from multiple people, his wife tries to make him something that he is not, by getting him to kill anyone that she wants him to. Throughout the book the main character Macbeth drastically changes from being brave to being cowardly. He also changes from being loving to being greedy, and last he changes from being very trustworthy to being very untrustworthy. As a thane of Scotland, Macbeth loves and serves King Duncan even if it means his own death.

Read More
688 Words | 3 Pages

In Sophocles’ Antigone, Antigone and Creon both have qualities of a tragic hero according to Aristotle’s definition. Aristotle believes a tragic hero is a decent human, but falls due to a weakness in one’s character. In the plot, Antigone decides to bury her brother, which defies the laws of Creon, the dictator of Thebes. Antigone believes she must hold her family values and the gods’ beliefs with utmost respect. Antigone refuses to deny her crime, so she is sentenced to be death by Creon.

Read More
879 Words | 4 Pages

Early on in the story it is revealed that Macbeth wants to become the king after listening from the prophecy told by the three wyrd witches. One example is when Macbeth says” Two predictions have come true. The First towards the ultimate goal, the throne!” (1.3.130-135). That proves that Macbeth has a lot of ambition to become the new king and to over throne Duncan.

Read More
876 Words | 4 Pages

Macbeth started off as a valiant and courageous soldier, who would do anything for the king. By the end of the play, Macbeth was a tyrant and a horrible leader who killed those who trusted him to maintain the throne. It takes many factors to take a strong man and transform him into an evil monster. Macbeth’s downfall was caused by the deception and temptation of the witches and their prophecies, Lady Macbeth’s greed and aspirations for her husband to be king, and Macbeth’s own greed, jealousy and ambition.

Read More
593 Words | 3 Pages

William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, the main character; Macbeth, is seen as an evil character. The play is based off of Macbeth’s decisions and his actions to become King. In the beginning Macbeth starts out as a hero in Scotland’s war with Ireland and towards the end he is transformed into a murderer. Macbeth is not wholly evil because of is heroism in the war, his love for Scotland, and because he didn’t want to kill King Duncan initially. Macbeth was brain washed by his wife and tricked into killing the King.

Read More

More about Characters: Good And Evil In Sophocles's Antigone

Open Document