Sophocles is truly a literary genius. Time and time again in his plays he is able to use the groundwork of a plot to convey true meaning in powerful messages and lessons. This ability to embed deeper meaning between the lines of a simple story is what turns his seemingly basic plays to a masterful works of craft, so profound that they’re still studied today. A prime example of this master at work is in his play, Antigone. This tragedy takes place in the aftermath of Oedipus’ disastrous rule in Thebes, and follows his successor Creon as he struggles to take over his new role as king. While the play follows a classic tragic structure full of pride and suffering, the true genius of it lies in the conflict between the tragic hero, Creon, and his niece Antigone.
The two disagree over the Machiavellian style of ruling Creon had adopted in the wake of Oedipus’ disgrace, with Antigone arguing that the intense laws he had put in place were not to be taken as seriously as those of the gods. Sophocles uses their dispute to make a point about justice and law. The message intended for the reader is that a conflict isn’t always dictated by right or wrong. Separate ideologies all have the potential to be correct, and just because they may disagree or lack similar qualities does not mean that one is more true than the other.
Critical to understanding this lesson-teaching conflict is a grasp of the characters it concerns: Antigone and Creon. Starting with the namesake of the play,
Standing for what you believe in and know what's right and wrong is important . In the play, Antigone, Sophocles demonstrates that through the conflict of the character. The play is a well-known tragic drama about the conflict between Antigone and her uncle Creon who is king of Thebes.Both character have different believes, idea and opinions regarding divine law and civil law. In Antigone the author Sophocles demonstrates the how important one's moral beliefs is, through the actions of the characters and how the beliefs impact the outcome of the play.The conflict between civil and divine law through Antigone and Creon, shows the important one's beliefs and how it impacts the outcome of the play. A reader can Identifying which law is more important in the play by looking at how the laws impact the characters and the outcome of the play. Both Antigone and Creon go at it expressing each others believes and whether one is right or wrong.Throughout the play civil law is more significant and powerful.
Conflicts that institute in a royal family directly result in a catastrophic incident leading to outcasted characters alone. In the Greek play, Antigone, exhibits a tragic story about a family where a king named Creon believes he’s required to kill his niece, Antigone, for her valiant action. Antigone wanted to honor her brother Polynices so she disobeyed her uncles order, Creon, and buried Polynices. Creon endeavored to make Antigone lie and not tell anyone about the burial for the sake of his son, because Haemon, Creon’s son, is profoundly in love with Antigone. Antigone was reluctant to retain her mouth close and was willing to die than abide by the rule of the government. Antigone contributes to Creon’s development as a tragic hero by having opposing views, developing the theme of regret.
In Sophocles’ Antigone, a strong-willed uncle ,Creon, is faced with the burden of punishing his young rebellious niece, Antigone. Creon is the ruler of Thebes, after a struggle for power and the wrath of a family curse. Creon’s stern ruling after the death of his treacherous nephew, warrants fate to take over. Creon’s hubris attitude, unrelenting fate and error of judgement, make him the epitome of an Aristotelian tragic hero.
The conflict between law and morality has been in existence since the beginning of human society, and to this day still greatly influences people and society. Written by the Greek playwright Sophocles in the 5th century BCE, Antigone is the tragic story of a young girl who goes against the king’s edict and buries her brother, a traitor to the state, sentencing herself to execution. The conflicting ideals of logos - moral, divine, or natural laws, and nomos, or man made laws are Greek virtues explored in the characters of Antigone and Creon, both of whose lives end horribly. Although nomos is often too concrete to manipulate to one’s advantage, logos is much more open to interpretation, and in the case of Creon, whose tragic flaw is hubris, the fluidity of logos allows him to use it to justify and influence his actions, ultimately harming him much more than nomos, and causing his story to end in tragedy. After investigating societal gender roles and the effect they
In the story, Antigone by Sophocle is a Greek tragedy whose characters misfortunes lead to their final deaths. This play is about a royal family’s cured and King Creon’s selfish ways. Antigone is a young royal lady who fights for her beliefs and defies the king’s ruling by burying her dead brother. In the end, to the king’s dismay, finds that all his loved ones, dead. Creon and Antigone differ from each other by how Antigone is loyal, beliefs, and consideration.
While reading the Greek play "Antigone", written by the playwright Sophocles, one sees that a few of the characters can be related back to the reader/watcher of the play. For instance, many people can identify with the protagonist Antigone through her incomparable dedication in following the laws of beings of greater power. Others might identify with the wise Tiresias, whose wisdom and advice is given and taught across the land. However, for a fifteen-year-old boy such as I, I identify the most with the antagonist of the play, King Creon.The way that Creon manages his problems, very reminiscent to the way that many deal with the situations that they face in their lives; how he lets his anger and pride completely fuel every action that he takes
Sophocles' Antigone is, at its simplest, a tragedy of conflict and misunderstandings. In the play, the laws of the gods are set up against the laws of man, and the two appear irreconcilable as the values are upheld by equally opposing characters, Creon and Antigone respectively. Indeed, Wilkins and Macleod decide that in Antigone `not only is there conflict, there is also a refusal even to recognise the other's point of view' (23). Thus Chorus significantly warn against the pursuit of extremes and sing about the need for men to reconcile human and divine law:
Written by Sophocles, Antigone is an Athenian tragedy that tells the story of Oedipus’s daughter’s, Antigone, defiance against the King of Thebes, Creon, in the matter of her brother Polynices’s burial. Consequently, her disobedience causes her death as ordered by the prideful king. Throughout the play, Creon is unable to set aside his pride in his hierarchical position; evidently, this characteristic is proven as a fatal flaw to those around him. His blind acceptance of hierarchy demonstrated a costly ordeal as the realization of what matters most came too late. On the subject of being king, Creon puts himself in high regard due to his immense power over the people– often disregarding all voices of reason and deeming all criticisms unworthy.
However, the central conflict is between the protagonist, Creon, and the antagonist, Antigone. This conflict can be classified as Man vs. Man. Creon and Antigone compete with one another on the basis of which law is superior, man’s law or god’s law. Creon believing that man-made laws should not be defied, is forced to, due to his beliefs, sentence Antigone to death upon defying the law. This leads to the internal conflict present within Creon. Should he kill Antigone for defying man-made law or acquit her because her intent to follow god’s law? Due to his relentless and uncompromising beliefs of man-made law being superior to all other laws, he is forced to sentence Antigone to death, though many disagree. It seems as the moral thing to do, however, in the end, it turns out to be more than he could bargain for.
The play, “Antigone” is effective and powerful in portraying determination because it has characteristics, faith/beliefs, and today’s society. In the play, Antigone is a female who cared about her family and always do what her heart tell her. She has a strong feeling that she decided that she wanted to bury her brother, even she knew that it is against the laws and people who will get caught shall be killed. On the other hand, King Creon who is Antigone’s uncle and is a leader who believe that he is the right one. He never wanted to hear people’s opinions and change the rules.
Around 442 BC in the city of Athens, Greece, Sophocles wrote the greatly admired tragedy, Antigone. Antigone includes many themes such as Freedom, Protection of Personal Dignity, Obedience to Civil Law, Protection of Community/Nation, Loyalty/Obligation to Family, and Observance of Religious Law. Many of the Greek tragedies that have been written include a tragic hero that has his/her tragic flaw. In Antigone there are two main characters; Creon, the tyrant king of Thebes, and Antigone, the daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta. One of these main characters must be chosen to be the tragic hero in the story. Creon and Antigone are almost polar opposites when it comes to views of society, but their attitudes are almost identical.
Greek drama was written in such a way that the characters are the pivotal aspect of the play. The main characters in Sophocles’ epic play, Antigone, are both very strong personalities, which naturally leads to conflict. Antigone and King Creon both have very intense beliefs and roles in this play that oppose each other, and although there is a family tie, will lead to an imminent tragedy. Antigone is a young women who believes in the loyalty of her family and fears no one and nothing. She is willing to give up her bright future and her life and disobey the edict of her uncle and bury her deceased brother. Antigone displays her heroic characteristics through her fearlessness, loyalty, perseverance, and is therefore the tragic heroine of
When a teenager rebels they do so because they are under minded by authority. One example is illustrated in Persepolis, Mrs. Nasrine, Marjane's maid, is distraught over her son's life having a worth of a plastic key (Satrapi 99). Mrs. Nasrine's son is promised luxuries in the afterlife if they die in war (Satrapi 100). This simple view of a teenager’s life and their usage leads teenagers to rebel. Marjane's cousin, Shahab also recalls seeing the teenagers being thrown into the field and faced with immediate death (Satrapi 101,102). Iranian teenage boys are shown to be simply fodder to the Iran Iraqi War and while they hold the future of a nation, the regime only sees them as pawns. The idea of teenagers being the minds to manipulate and brainwash
In the play Antigone, Sophocles creates the complex character of Antigone, who does what is morally right and tries to be the hero but messes itu p with hubris, hatefulness, and selfishness. She causes her sister, boyfriend, and Creon to suffer which adds to the tragedy that good deeds don’t always make the best heroes.
The play “Antigone” is a tragedy by Sophocles. One main theme of the play is Religion vs. the state. This theme is seen throughout the play. Antigone is the supporter of religion and following the laws of the gods and the king of Thebes, Creon, is the state. In the play Creon has made it against the law to bury Antigone’s brother, something that goes against the laws of the gods, this is the cause of most conflict in the story. This struggle helps to develop the tragic form by giving the reader parts of the form through different characters.