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Gender Roles In Antigone

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The gender roles the women in Antigone are defined by are characterized by age-old issues passed down from generation to generation, making them harder to change and for people to see the fault in them. Women are treated are the way they are to keep civil obedience and limit their freewill. Creon, as well as those in power before he, strives to keep all the power in the king’s hands and maintains the social standards created to maintain order. The women are aware of their place in society and those who are obedient like Inesme, know the government “is not a woman’s place, [that women] are weak where [men] are strong… we must do as we’re told” (Mitchell 10). This is not a threat the men created to keep society functioning, but it is a practice …show more content…

On Creon’s first day as king he uses these manipulation tactics to ensure total dominance over his subjects to show he he deserving of the throne. Creon’s first diplomatic decision threatens that if people are not obedient to their new ruler and “Whoever breaks [his first] law, [he will] have them stoned to death” (7). This law shows Creon’s violent and tyrannical ways of ruling his subject and by exerting scare tactics Creon is scaring his subjects into following his rule and dehumanizes them when stating that “even the wildest of horses heel when they’re reined and bitted right.” (30). Creon is power hungry and shows family is not his first priority by not being fazed by the death of both of his nephews, which is the reason behind him being the “next kin to those dead and doomed [he’s] next in line. The throne has come to [him]” …show more content…

The banning of a proper burial for her brother Polyneices was not a rule Antigone followed “…because the law was not the law of Zeus… [she] chose to disregard it [and] abide by statutes utter and immutable – unwritten, original, god-given laws” (29). By disrespecting her uncle, Antigone shows her true motive is not family since any action she took, either obeying or disobeying the law, would negatively affect one of her family members. Antigone’s actions show instead that she values her morals over the divine law, even dying for what she believes in. Both the men and women in the society support her choice over Creon’ rule, and even the chorus admits that before Antigone, “…never before did death open his stone door to one so radiant…” (50). (question why she was

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