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Sophocles 'Pride And Nationalism In The Play Antigone'

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The play Antigone is in no way bound by a specific time frame. The powerful messages that it conveys can be applied to almost any time period. For example, two of the most prominent themes were the follies of pride and nationalism. Combined, these two elements drive Creon's stubbornness and, by extension, the entire plot of the story. Throughout history, nationalism and pride have driven leaders, as well as regular people, to commit attrocities, such as the Holocaust and Khmer Rouge. Consequently, this means that it is possible to modernize Antigone, most likely with the use of more modern examples such as corrupt politicians. Another universal theme presented by the play is the fact that even the smallest person, alone, can fight for what
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Creon is considered a tragic figure in the play Antigone, because he is of noble status as king. As ruler of Thebes, it his responsibility to create all of the laws, punishments, and enforcing all preset edicts.   Creon was clearly at his peak leadership role as king allowing him an excessive amount of space for error.   Once the dilemma of following the rules, killing Antigone, or saving his son’s bride developed, Creon’s weakness surfaced.  

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In Sophocles` play, Antigone, he shows a story of a crazed man who lets pride takes over his actions causing the deaths of his loved ones. This essay will discuss Haimon, King Creon`s son, through statements that Sophocles himself wrote and inferences of his perspective. During the story Haimon does major actions such as; plea for his fiancée, commits suicide and even cast death upon King Creon. I believe that Haimon plead for Antigone`s life for more than one reason. He pleads for her because she was his fiancée and also because he heard the rumors the citizens passed around about King Creon.

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‘How should one live?’ ‘Is it possible to make a rational choice between personal decision and external constraints?’ and ‘Can practical rationality be used to avoid conflict?’ These are questions that Nussbaum tries to uncover through the tragic play, Sophocles’ Antigone, of Ancient Greek theatre. Nussbaum heavily focuses on the simplification committed by the protagonists, Creon and Antigone, as they attempt to ward off conflict through simplifying their “commitments and love”.

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Antigone is a work by Sophocles that is the third part of the three Theban plays. Since Antigone was such a well written work, many wonder if he was influenced by any major events around the time of his writing Antigone. There were a couple of wars during the time of the writing but none of them were directly impacting Greece at the time. The Theban war and the battle of Samos had an impact on and influenced Sophocles while writing the play Antigone. How did the Theban war impacted Sophocles and the writing of Antigone?

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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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The decisions of Antigone lead to many conflicts. Throughout the story, King Creon struggles with arrogance that destroys the effect he has on the people of Thebes as a leader. Through

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Honor is the adherence to what is right or to a conventional standard of conduct. In the dramatic play Antigone by Sophocles, the lead character , Antigone has to make an arduous decision either by following the laws of god, which was to bury her brother Polynices, against the laws of Creon, which was to let Polynices body be left unburied above grounds, to be eaten . Antigone believes that she has to do what is right because the laws of God is more important to her. Honor is worth dying for, because one chooses to do what is right and what will help others, even if it ends in a tragic repercussions.

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Through our classes discussion and presentations of our interactive orals, we discussed the cultural context of Sophocles’ play “Antigone.” In our discussion my cultural understanding was developed about the role of women in Ancient Greece and how Antigone challenges those roles, and the importance the importance of proper burial . We also discussed the life of the playwright Sophocles. After the presentations of the interactive orals it was clear that Antigone defied her culture, in that she did not always take her social status as a woman seriously.

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The archaic play, Antigone, effectively expresses and communicates its ideas of Greek ideology and mythology. Antigone is the third, commonly referred as a tragedy, of three Theban plays and is a continuation of Oedipus at Colonus. The play starts off with Antigone and her sister deciding to return to Thebes to help their brothers, Eteocles and Polyneices, avoid the prophecy which predicts they will kill each other in battle for the throne of Thebes. Upon Antigone’s arrival in Thebes, news reaches Antigone that both of her brothers are dead. Eteocles has been given a proper burial while Polyneices has been named a traitor to the country.

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While he is mad at her proud defiance of the law and him not being able to change her mind in anyway Creon grabs Antigone’s arm and does so really tightly in which Antigone feels nothing which then shows that Antigone has passed beyond the reach of the state power and the control of men. These two different examples can also be related to France at the time of Nazi occupation. The rivalry of Antigone and Ismene can be seen as the rivalry of the Allies and the Axis powers of world war two where Antigone in this case represents the Allies just as she represented the French resistance and Ismene would represent the Axis powers. This comparison is shown due to the differences in Ideals between the Allied and Axis powers as the differences between the two sisters. The symbol of Creon’s attack can also be seen as the Germans taking over France and imposing their ideals on them and the resistance which is represented by Antigone does not feel or in the French resistances case does not recognize or follow the Nazi government in southern France’s ideas and actions (Gildea,

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1017 Words | 5 Pages

“Humble yourself or life will do it for you,” is a common quote used by many. This idea of being humble to avoid consequences applies well to the book Antigone by Sophocles. It shows how if one has too much pride, they will be humbled in one way or another. In Antigone, Creon had tunnel vision, not listening to anyone. His fatal flaw was hubris, ultimately leading to the downfall of him.

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She does not want to understand why Creon needs certain laws for order within Thebes; she wants to do what is right and she is prepared to die for it. To end, Antigone’s independence and her determination in upholding her standards of justice is what relates her to the French Resistance. In conclusion, the views on justice and law within Antigone are representative of roles in Nazi occupied France. The secondary characters, due to their disinterest in the law and fairness and submission to authority, are the majority of the French People.

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Aristotle founded the idea that all the best arguments have three key parts: ethos, pathos and logos. Translated from latin, this means ethical, emotional and logical. In the play Antigone by Sophocles, the characters frequently make use of these tools when attempting to persuade another character to conform to their beliefs and thoughts. Antigone tries to get her sister, Ismene, to help her in a crime that she believes is just. Haimon attempts to lessen Antigone’s sentence by lecturing his father about what it means to be a good leader, and the Chorus is just trying to help out anyone they can with wise words from a third party opinion.

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In ancient Greece, a common saying that all citizens had in their very core, a traditional Greek principle, was this: love your friends, and hate your enemies. This rule seems pretty straightforward and would appear easy to apply in real life. However, in the timeless play Antigone, Sophocles shows his audience a situation where this maxim does not apply. Sophocles concentrates on a complex story where the values and principles of the ancient Greek culture come into conflict. Religious or moral versus secular, family versus community, and living versus dead: all of these conflicting aspects are explored in Antigone.

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It is a common knowledge that there are more than seven billion people in the world, therefore each person is unique in his own way. In fact, this distinction indicates a greater value to every individual life, protecting each human from becoming a simply extra number in the list. Such kind of individuality provides humanity with a specific purpose and allows to make choices which basically define it. Actually, as humans, people distinguish themselves by who they truly are and not what they are. Society has been trained to act in a right way if faced a moral dilemma or any type of ethical situation.

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