ipl-logo

Fate In Sophocles Antigone

973 Words4 Pages

Sophocles's Antigone and How It Relates to Its Greek Audience Throughout history, cultures have developed different beliefs and values about their lives. In the literary world, authors often use their audience's ideology to develop their works and make them more appealing. Their writings also give future readers a sense of what their society is like. In the play Antigone, Sophocles uses the Greek ideas of "Nothing in excess", the unities, and fate in order to reflect his audience's beliefs of the time. The phrase, "Nothing in excess," is inscribed at the Temple of Delphi as a reminder to the Greeks to not elevate or degrade themselves. In Antigone, both Antigone and Creon violate this principle. Antigone, in the beginning of the play, decides that she will bury Polynices and break Creon's law against it. As she describes her idea to her sister, Ismene cations Antigone, saying "Remember we are women, / we're not born to contend with men" (lines 74-75). …show more content…

In Antigone, Tiresias warns Creon that he is "poised, / once more, on the razor-edge of fate" (1099-1100) and must bury Polynices before the gods punish him. Creon does not believe his prophecy as he is certain that he is in the right and believes that Tiresias just wants money. Tiresias is angry at Creon's accusation and tells him that before the day is over, he will "have surrendered/ one born of your own loins, [...]/ a corpse for corpses given in return" (1183-1185). Creon finally takes Tiresias's warning seriously and goes to give Polynices a funeral and free Antigone. However, when he goes to release Antigone, he discovers that she has hanged herself and Haemon has found her. Haemon takes his sword and tries to stab his father before killing himself with it instead, fulfilling Tiresias's prophecy. Despite his attempt, Creon could not escape his fate that the gods decided for

Show More
Related
1256 Words | 6 Pages

Antigone wants to bury her brother, but Creon will not let her. Creon and Antigone argue back and forth, multiple times Creon would say that his rules are rules. He was arrogant about his kingship and would not allow to bury Antigone’s brother because of his own pride. His pride overruled any and all reasons that Antigone should be allowed to bury the body even if they were good reasons. As Creon is being introduced to the chorus he states that he will not bury Polynices, and he has brainwashed his court of public opinion so much they add to his overweening pride by saying “Your will is law” (132 Sophocles).

Read More
1226 Words | 5 Pages

In this quote, she is trying to harn Creon that although he thinks very highly of himself, he will never be able to anything to disrupt the gods and their unwritten laws (being that all men deserve burial). Additionally, the word choice and tone used by the characters also differs. When Creon talks he makes it clear that he thinks of himself quite highly and is convinced that he is above everyone else because of his excessive pride and noble stature. This leads to a tone in his speech that is very obnoxious and off-putting. To the contrary, Antigone regards herself quite low and stands for

Read More
406 Words | 2 Pages

The excessive pride of Creon and Antigone lead to their downfalls in Antigone. In the scene in which creon is confronted by Antigone about his commands he says “go down and love you must- love the dead! While I’m alive, no woman is going to lord it over me” () Creon

Read More
638 Words | 3 Pages

“…even if she were closer than my sister’s child, closer than any who shares my family’s chapel, she and her sister will not escape the worst fate” by saying that, he believes she will stop with the arguments and simply follow his laws however, it’s quite the opposite what happens next. She mocks him even more by questioning, “Do you want something more than killing me?” Later on into the scene, they start discussing the death of Polynices and Eteocles, while Creon believes that Polynices shouldn’t deserve to be buried and that the gods wouldn’t like him because he is bad person. “The good don’t want to share honors with the bad” However, in the other hand Antigone replies by saying that both of them should be buried, this causes Creon to enrage and exclaim “No woman will rule

Read More
1786 Words | 8 Pages

In the play, Antigone, daughter of Oedipus learns about the death of her two brothers (Eteocles and Polynices).Creon, the new king of Thebes passed a decree to the city on the burial of the two brothers. In the decree, Creon declares that Eteocles body should be buried with honor and fame for his courage of saving the city from the enemy. Whiles Polynices body is left unburied and rotting for beasts to feed on because he came to destroy the city and enslave the people. Antigone defies Creon 's decree, buries Polynices body and gets caught. Creon imprisons her

Read More
1014 Words | 5 Pages

Antigone also falls victim to the excessive force and jaded complexity of her uncle, when he prioritizes patriarchal standards and his law over her moral act of goodness and makes it known that, “while I’m alive, no woman is going to lord it over me” (590). All the trouble Creon put his family through just to save face and show his dominance ends up destroying what was left of his family just to avoid, “never be rated inferior to a woman, never”

Read More
622 Words | 3 Pages

Antigone is the daughter of the late king Oedipus, and Creon is the king of Corinth. The conflict that these two face is the burial of Polyneices, who was Antigone’s deceased brother. Creon was not allowing Polynices to be buried, because he had fought against Athens. To Creon, this was correct: “And yet you dared to overstep these laws?” (Sophocles Line 458)

Read More
483 Words | 2 Pages

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

Read More
1497 Words | 6 Pages

In contrast to this, in Antigone, Creon is a tyrant-like leader who lacked empathy and care for others. This can be seen as he forbid the burial of Polynices, which defied Greek custom. This act results in the death of Antigone, his son Haemon and his wife Eurydice (“Play Summary Antigone”). Contrary to Oedipus, Creon’s Hubris lead to a series of conscious actions that negatively affect the characters in the story. In the end, Creon can be seen to have learnt his lesson as the chorus states: “Of happiness the crown

Read More
837 Words | 4 Pages

In this growing world, people have learned to challenge rules and test boundaries to get what they want and to stand up for what they believe in. The play Antigone by Sophocles is an example of a story that tells an important moral of always doing what someone believes is right, despite the consequences. In the story, Antigone confidently gives her brother, Polyneices, a proper burial, despite her uncle Creon's wishes not to do so. Creon finds out and takes actions against Antigone and sentences her to death, resulting in turmoil for his family and city.

Read More
904 Words | 4 Pages

Cindy Yoon Mr.Constantini English 1A 18 September 2015 Real Tragic Hero of Antigone The play, Antigone is an Ancient Greek play mostly about myth written by Sophocles. There are two main characters in this play which are Antigone and Creon. Antigone is a girl who tries to bury her brother, Polyneices who died during the war and she chooses family instead of the government. Creon, is Antigone’s uncle, and also a King of Thebes who didn’t allow the people to bury Polyneices.

Read More
882 Words | 4 Pages

In the play Antigone, by Sophocles, Creon’s deadly stubbornness and selfishness in ignoring the pleas and

Read More
1197 Words | 5 Pages

Aristotle founded the idea that all the best arguments have three key parts: ethos, pathos and logos. Translated from latin, this means ethical, emotional and logical. In the play Antigone by Sophocles, the characters frequently make use of these tools when attempting to persuade another character to conform to their beliefs and thoughts. Antigone tries to get her sister, Ismene, to help her in a crime that she believes is just. Haimon attempts to lessen Antigone’s sentence by lecturing his father about what it means to be a good leader, and the Chorus is just trying to help out anyone they can with wise words from a third party opinion.

Read More
509 Words | 3 Pages

In Sophocles’ play Antigone, Antigone is punished for burying her dead brother’s body by being buried alive. Antigone gives an emotional speech in which she laments the loss of her youth and her future of marriage and motherhood. In this speech, she employs rhetorical devices like pathos, foreshadowing and extended metaphor. In an attempt to coerce Creon to refrain from burying herself alive, Antigone utilizes the rhetorical device, pathos.

Read More
958 Words | 4 Pages

The drama Antigone places the culture of Greece on display by showcasing the many values that this culture held in reverence, including remaining loyal to family, honoring the dead, and honoring the gods. In Sophocles’ renowned drama entitled Antigone, one of the main values that Antigone chooses to honor is loyalty to family, even when that means that she has to forgo loyalty to her city and community. Even though her uncle the king, Kreon, forbade anyone to bury Polyneikes’ body because he had been on the opposing side in the battle, Antigone felt a duty to her brother to bury him. When speaking with her sister, Antigone says that Kreon’s command “…threatens our loved ones / as if they were our enemies” (Antigone 14-15).

Read More

More about Fate In Sophocles Antigone

Related Topics

Open Document