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Family Vs Authority In Antigone

Decent Essays

Conflict; a serious disagreement or argument, typically a protracted one. Every person deals with conflict, whether it’s large or small, internal or external. In the ancient Greek set play, Antigone, the author Sophocles challenges his characters to choose between family or authority. The author Sophocles illustrates the two concepts of family versus authority, while proving family ties to be more important through the main character Antigone, the heroine of the story, as a symbol for family. While Creon the antagonist represents authority. Sophocles writes the play out to uphold a theme of an authoritative king who only wants to abide by the laws, no matter who it affects, only to show in the end, it is the king who loses. Throughout the play character development and symbols are used to illustrate that family is more important than authority. Sophocles symbolizes family over authority by using Antigone and Creon to conflict each other's core beliefs, showing that Antigone is willing to die to honor the love for her family, while Creon is willing to kill to honor and enforce his own authority at any cost. As we see in the story, when Antigone's brothers die, she chooses to bury Polyneices even though she knows this will cost her her life. In the play when Antigone tells her sister what she’s going to do, ismene says, ”But think of the danger! Think what Creon will do! ANTIGONE: Creon is not enough to stand in my way” This shows Antigone represents family for the great lengths she will go to to honor her brother. By contrast, Sophocles paints Creon to symbolize authority through murder of his own bloodline. In the play he plans to kill Antigone for choosing her love for her brother over his rule, and so he plans out her execution although she is family to Creon. The Choragos asks Creon “Do you really intend to steal this girl from your son?,” which then he responds by saying “No; Death will do that for me.” Which shows the reader that Creon is unsympathetic to who Antigone is in relation to him. He disregards the importance of family to uphold his authoritative values. By the end of the play the author has shown us Creon has come to realize his ways have cost him his family, and he regrets his decisions.

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