Reasoning In Antigone

Antigone is a story about social and family relations that serves as an example to the reader of how emotions can overpower reason. Sticking to one thought process even when circumstances change can be dangerous, especially when dealing with life threatening situations. In the case of Antigone, the stressful relations and lack of logic used by the characters are used as a lesson to the audience showing what can happen when emotions get out of hand.

There are two scenes in the story which best exemplify this. The first of which is when Kreon, even after he realizes that Antigone is the one who has disobeyed his commands, says that he will put her to death. The second of which is the final scene, wherein the messengers deliver the news that Antigone,

Both letting Antigone go and killing her are two choices that would clearly be made on emotional judgment alone. The correct way to do things would be to compromise and create a more reasonable punishment for Antigone. Of course, coming to that conclusion would have been the result of logic and reasoning. Instead, an emotional solution was immediately decided upon, and the irreversible domino effect began. Interestingly, what we can also see here is that Kreon at one point utters to Antigone with regard to his previous proclamation, “yet you had the daring to transgress these laws?” (Sophocles 38). This shows that Kreon was so fixed on his decision to execute Antigone that he even tried to rationalize

It shows that irreversible decisions should not be taken lightly, as the consequences can be immense. As a result of this, the play also has undeniable potential to evoke catharsis in the audience. Antigone serves as not only a lesson to the spectator, but an opportunity to live vicariously through the characters in the story and experience the emotional stress of their decisions. This serves a great purpose, leaving the audience more developed having witnessed the events of the play. While immersive and intriguing, Antigone gives the audience a chance to experience the story without the lasting effects of a real life tragedy. This is an experience that is relatively hard to come by, and considering its spiritual value, it allows Antigone to be considerably relevant to modern