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Powerful Force In Antigone By Sophocles

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When one hears the words “powerful force”, they might think of strong muscles, heavy machinery, or even “the force” used in Star Wars. However, another powerful force that is often overlooked is the love of the human heart. How is love a powerful force compared to the many other strong things of this world? When looked at deeper, it is made obvious that love has had an effect on how humans act for ages as shown when Antigone buries her brother, when Haimon dies by her side, and when the Queen ends her life.
Antigone, was a play written by Sophocles between the years of 496 B.C and 406 B.C. It is a tragedy about a young girl burying her loved brother even through her uncle, the king, outlawed it. She knew the consequences would be harsh. However, she did it for she greatly loved her brother and wanted him to have a proper burial. “This death of mine is of no importance; but if I had left my brother lying in death unburied, I should have suffered,”(Scene 2, prologue lines 70-72) Antigone told the King. In response to her …show more content…

He tried to reason with his father saying, “Death?- She should have all the honor that we can give her!,”(Scene 3, prologue line 67) but his father’s decision was final. Antigone was to live out the rest of her days in a lonely cave where food and water would be brought to her till the day she died. Knowing that she would be alive, but never truly living, Antigone hung herself with her garments. When Hamion found his young love dead, he weeped by her side. His father, having a change of heart, tried to apologize, nevertheless the heart broken Haimon was full of rage, sorrow, and loss that he consequently took his own life. “As he died he gathered Antigone close in his arms again.”(Scene 3, prologue line 72) Losing Antigone and knowing that his father was the cause of her death was enough for the force of love to motivate Haimon to take the fatal blow at his own

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