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Theme Of Conflict In Antigone

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In literature, conflicts are needed. Conflicts move the plot forward, and without conflicts, stories are completely dull. Antigone, a very famous play written by Sophocles, is a Greek tragedy. Antigone is about a young brave woman named Antigone standing up against the king of ancient Thebes, Creon, defying his laws, and dying with honor. The conflicts of Individual Vs. Authority, Male Vs. Female, and Youth Vs. Age move the plot forward and show us character development while forming the setting and tone of the play. The most important conflict throughout the play is Individual Vs. Authority, which forwards the plot. Antigone opens up with an edict being introduced and Antigone is completely against is. Antigone’s plan is to disobey this …show more content…

Female develops and reveals a sexist environment in ancient Thebes. At the beginning of the play, Ismene is already showing how worthless she feels. She says to Antigone, “O, think, Antigone; we are women; it is not for us to fight against men” (428). This quote emphasizes that Ismene feels completely paralyzed and invisible. Antigone, on the other hand, is the complete opposite in temperament. After going through with the act of breaking the law, she says to Creon, “I did not think your edicts strong enough to overrule the unwritten unalterable laws of God and heaven, you being only a man” (438). Antigone clearly puts the laws of the gods over the laws of man, as she does not think the laws of man are strong enough to overpower them. She disregards man’s laws to serve the higher law. Another major aspect of this conflict is Creon’s sexism. Antigone tries to defend her acts by saying that she just wants to share her love with the world. Creon replies, “Go then, and share your love among the dead. We’ll have no woman’s law here while I live” (440). This quote displays how afraid Creon is of having a woman above him or prove him wrong. He would rather silence her. It is also apparent that women are seen as mere objects. He breaks Antigone’s and Haemon’s vow, dismissing the loss by saying, “Oh, there are other fields for him to plough” (441). Creon sees women as object only used for sex, and thinks that Haemon can easily find someone else. In ancient Thebes, women are considered worthless, especially to Creon, but Antigone thinks otherwise, and decides to take a

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His view on women also reshapes his flaws and enhances his tragedy of him as a character. CREON. "Do you want me to be shown to have obeyed a woman?" (Sophocles, line 743) In line 743, Creon talks about how he does not think that any woman should be involved in any men’s politics. Creon thinks that men should have more power than women and that they should not be into politics considering that their opinion is less important or

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/Must I rule the land by someone else’s judgment rather than my own? (Antigone, 790 & 792) This bold statement made by Creon suggests that he sees himself as a leader with the power and dignity of the state entirely with himself. With that power Creon also comes off as prideful as he states “I swear I am no man and she the man/ if she can win this and not pay for it. (Antigone, 528-529), this quote is evidence that Creon decision to stick to punishing Antigone is based off of his pride as a male as he deems that he won’t lose to a woman, as well as his belief that he has absolute say as the king.

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Page 42. Line 642-643 ). Antigone will never hate her brothers. No matter what they did. Polynices will not have died in vain.

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(lines 510-516). Antigone has been captured by the guards and taken to Creon where he ask why she dare break the law that he has set forth. Antigone’s honor lays with the gods and overrides any law man has set forth. Antigone states her beliefs and stands on them with reference to divine law which is a clear conflict of Creon’s decisions. This challenges Creon and stirs up further conflict over who is right and wrong over the matter at hand.

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In the Greek times, women did not usually stood up for what they believed in, especially to a man. So when Antigone burried Polyneices, Creon did not expect a woman to do anything of this type of situation. Creon is too uncompromising to change his decision of the burial of Polyneices, and he was not going to allow a woman to owing to the fact violate a rule he made and not discipline her. When Creon was arguing with Haimon, he would not budge and says, “You consider right for a man of my years and experience to go to school to a boy?” (Sophocles 794).

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Pride can be one of man's strongest qualities. In Sophocles' play, Antigone, the Theme of pride becomes the cause for destruction for both Creon and Antigone in the play.. Creon's Pride blinds him to the injustice he commits against Antigone and the gods. Antigone's pride leaves her no choice but to be killed because of her beliefs. They Both automatically surrender to their own hubris and demonstrate how uncontrolled pride leads to personal downfalls and destruction in Antigone.

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What is worth mentioning in Sophocles’ play is that he not only showed the weak side of women but also the strong ones. For example, Ismene is the traditional role of women in ancient Greek—coward, fear of men power and feeble. For Ismene, "we must remember we were born women, not meant to strive with men" (Antigone). She even chose to die with Antigone while hearing her sentence, for she was afraid that she would be alone, she could not be able to fight against Creon, this men-dominant society. In contrast, her sister Antigone presents the “women power”.

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When Antigone tells her sister, Ismene, her intention to bury their brother against the orders of their uncle, Ismene states that she will “. . . obey the men in charge. My mind / Will never aim too high, too far” (pg. 3). Antigone is a stark contrast to Ismene, who wishes to stay within the bounds of traditional society by staying obedient and submissive to men. Antigone has her own mind however, and is not afraid to make her own decisions.

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Why aren’t women treated like human beings? In the past years there has been a stereotype that women aren’t good for anything except cooking, cleaning, and sitting pretty. This idea can be seen in both modern society as well as Sophocles’ Antigone. In Antigone, Creon and Ismene share their beliefs on women’s societal defeat, in which they fall significantly short on the scale.

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Him putting Antigone to death because she went against his power clearly shows his feminism towards women. This also shows that all males had full power over society, economy, and women, which isn’t fair. Antigone displays her feminist qualities when she goes against the most powerful male, the king Creon. Her going against him shows her disrespect for Creon, her doing this and speaking like a male figure shows her push for equality between the sexes. Antigone throughout the whole play pushed for equality but she never seemed to get what she wants.

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Antigone’s first core value is that she believes in putting her family first. This core value influences her decision that leads to her attempting

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526 Words | 3 Pages

Sophocles’ Antigone, is a classic Athenian Greek play that discusses questions about the importance of following the law when one does not agree with it, and whether divine laws or man-made laws have more importance in society. While these themes are worth exploring, another interesting aspect of the play is the cruel treatment and punishment of the title character, Antigone, by her uncle and future father-in-law Creon, the king of Thebes. Creon’s harsh punishment, a parallel to the treatment of women in Greek society, can be seen in many of the dialogues of the play. Antigone is determined to provide proper burial for dead brother, Polynices, against the orders of the king, and goes to her sister Ismene for help. However, Ismene is distraught at the idea of defying the king (104).

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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.

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1197 Words | 5 Pages

“I shall be hating you soon,” (193). Antigone then transitions into a more emotional form of persuasion, by threatening the relationship between them if she is to not join in on her plan. This targets the guilty conscience of Ismene which is normally what tends to push people to agree with the arguer, although it can be seen as a slightly manipulative tactic. Despite Antigone’s passive aggressive argument with Ismene, she fails to convince her to join the burial and carries out her mission on her own. However, the sentry Creon sent to spy on the grave spots her and brings her to Creon as the guilty

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1113 Words | 5 Pages

She does not understand why she is being treated so unjustly for trying to do the right thing. The chorus in the play tries convincing Antigone that justice is behaving in accordance to Creon’s laws but Antigone is stubborn and sustains to her convictions. Even though Antigone ends up dying she dies achieving her goal of wanting to bury her brother properly. Mostly everyone in this play goes against what the main character feels is justly because they want to follow the kings laws and they believe she is acting immorally. Antigone is not acting immorally, she is doing the right thing to follow the law of the gods.

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