Conflict In Antigone

Is it better to be a dead hero or a forgotten bystander? In Antigone, one of Sophocles’ three Theban plays, the actions of Oedipus’ daughter Antigone take center stage. After the death of her brothers, one of whom fought against Thebes, Antigone defies both the decree by Thebes’ leader Creon and the wishes of her sister, Ismene, to bury her treacherous brother in accordance with Ancient Greek funeral rites. Once captured, Antigone is sentenced to death and ultimately hangs herself, as her fiancé and his mother both kill themselves out of grief. While the central conflict is the contrasting ideals of Creon’s loyalty to his city and Antigone’s to her brother, Ismene is oft-forgotten as the mild, weak, cowardly sister whose only purpose is to attempt to dissuade Antigone from her ideals; however, her role as foil to Antigone’s domineering recklessness only

When a distraught and angry Antigone first brings her plans to Ismene, the only response she receives is a simple question: “What good am I to you?” (47). Ismene seems to betray her sister’s principles, passively standing by rather than taking action against injustice. Twice more during their conversation, Ismene gives off an aura of weakness that contradicts Antigone’s determinedness. Ismene first appeals to the social norms of the time, insisting that she “must obey the ones who stand in power/Why rush to extremes?/ It’s madness, madness” and that she has no choice but to follow Creon’s decree (79-81). She then insists that she has “no strength” for joining Antigone’s plot, seemingly making up as many excuses as possible to keep herself out of danger, no matter how weak or contrived her excuses may be (93). Through this initial conversation, it is easy to typify Ismene much as Antigone does: a coward too afraid of punishment to break the