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Resistance In Sophocles Antigone

441 Words2 Pages

Women within stories often have varying relationships, both with one another and with resistance. In Sophocles’, Antigone, for instance, he takes a sister pairing and separates them by their highly opposing relations with resistance. Antigone, for which the play was named after, is strongly against her uncle, Kreon, as she goes against his wishes and attempts to give her brother a proper burial despite his attempt to go against the state. Sophocles presents Antigone as a woman that is devoted to her causes, especially when he states that “[Polyneices’ is [her] brother – [she’ll] stand by him. [Kreon] cannot keep [her] from [her] own” (Sophocles 22). In contrast, Ismene, who’s also a sister of Polyneices and aware of the situation regarding his burial, opts to stay out of the way as she is aware that “women [are] born unfit to battle men” (23). …show more content…

These opposing perspectives in the battle over Polyneices is cause for a rift between Antigone and Ismene. The sisters are unable to see eye to eye and understand the position in which either one stands until it is far too late. Ismene has a break in character at one point, her resistance making an appearance as she beseeches with Antigone to let her join her death. She is rejected, whether it be by Antigone’s spitefulness or love, and ultimately left alone as the play draws closer to the end. As most women in literature, Antigone and Ismene face unsatisfying ends to their storylines. Antigone is found “down at the tomb’s end, hanged by her neck” (68), leaving her sister alone with the regret of not standing by her side. It is characters like Antigone that offer some hope in regards to strong female individuals. She is the embodiment of what Hobbes and Plato despise, and despite her undesirable end, she refuses to let up on her cause until her dying

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