William Shakespeare 's Macbeth And Antigone

Gender and its roles are exposed in the story of Antigone as the central themes. Roles and rules are set and followed by several people in this era, this is appreciated in this text. Ideas of contradiction to these rules were not explored. In Greek mythology, several women held positions of power, but none of these women were human, making the idea of a powerful woman godlike and unattainable, as if to keep woman in their place, which of course, was always under the rule of the superior gender, the male. To challenge a patriarchy with feminism was dangerous, for both sexes were equally protective of it, leaving the challenger desolate in the battle against it. To rely on women to help other women rebel against this social norm was not probable, in the contrary, women held each other accountable for complying to these rules and punished those who didn’t. Women were their gender’s prevalent critics and suppressors, not only because they feared the repercussions, but since they didn’t have the means to rebel against it.

For centuries men have been finding ways to gain control over everything and everyone. One group that has been oppressed by men throughout history are women. Men have placed rules and regulations upon women making them seen as unequal and inferior. Was it fear? Was it the hunger for power? Was is the highness of superiority? Whatever the reasons were, men had to be seen as the highest being next to whom they worshiped. In the play Antigone by Sophocles, the audience is exposed to the roles of men and women in an ancient Greece society known as Thebes. Although ancient Greece was a male-dominant society where women had as much freedom as a slave, Sophocles’ main character in the play, Antigone, is an example of a brave, strong-minded woman who goes against the limitations that were unfairly set upon women during that time to do what she believes is right. In this play, gender roles assists in the process of portraying the story since it affects some of the decisions of the characters and helps lead the story into the climax.

In the play Antigone, men view women as a threat to their masculinity and do whatever they have to in order to silence them. However, the women find ways to speak out anyway. Gender has profound affects on the meaning of Antigone's actions. Creon feels the need to defeat Antigone more so because she is a woman. Antigone's rebellion is especially threatening because it upsets gender roles and hierarchy. By refusing to be passive, she overturns one of the fundamental rules of her culture.

In both of these plays, the main characters are women. Because women are degraded, it causes them to make mistakes that men do not forgive. Through the degrading actions men take against women and their exaggerated reactions and emotions, females in Medea and Antigone are viewed as powerless and inferior to men, illustrating the voice

Throughout history there have been many strong females, in real life and in works of literature. Sophocles, the author of the tragic play Antigone, also created two other plays that corresponded with Antigone. Between the three plays, Sophocles tells the story of King Laius and the fight against the Greek God Apollo. Antigone begins right after an event in which Polyneices and Eteocles, Antigone’s brothers, stabbed each other at the exact same time. Both died, but because Polyneices had betrayed King Creon and Thebes, everyone in the kingdom was forbidden to give him a proper burial. Through her efforts in attempting to give Polyneices a proper burial and her defiance of King Creon, Antigone represents the strong female heroine in the story

or art. Women are then seen lacking in male organ,which is representative of male power and

To begin with, the play Antigone has come to be a great representation of anti-feminism showing just how poorly woman in that time were looked down upon. While it creates the mood of how woman were mistreated, it also sheds a light on the choice a woman

Typically women are described as powerless and subordinate and Ismene is depicted along these lines but through the character of Antigone, women at last get the opportunity to present reasonable perspectives about their

In Antigone, a play by Sophocles, the sisters Ismene and Antigone make bold and unwavering decisions. Contrary to most male characters in Greek plays, their male counterparts do not exhibit many masculine traits. Despite the fact that Ismene and Antigone are Greek women, they show more traits that are stereotypically masculine than their male counterparts such as decisiveness, fearlessness, and defiance.

One of the major conflicts in the “Antigone” is the struggle between the males and the females. It is explicit that the two genders are involved in deliberate efforts for dominance. In addition, it is evident that the perception that men were meant to dominate the women is paramount. For example, Ismene tells Antigone that even from birth the females "were not born to contend with men" (75), which depicts the women 's subordinate positions in their interactions with the men. Besides, the phrase describes women obedience and their passive nature in the confrontation of the day-to-day activities in the society. The women are displayed as beings whose role is to observe and to have little control over the unfolding events at a given time. Within

Throughout the play, Antigone is presented as an audacious and unorthodox female character, whose actions

The way that Shakespeare implements manipulation into Othello and Macbeth leads to significant emotional change in the majority of characters in both plays. This leads to protagonists’ eventual downfall in many cases, due to the language and imagery that Shakespeare creates in the tragedies. The schemists tend to exploit weaknesses in the victims, such as ambitions. This can be witnessed by the audience at a very early stage in both productions. In these two well-known pieces of work, it is not the main characters that resort to manipulating but it is often the “secondary” ones. This ultimately leads to the minor characters becoming much more involved in the production. An example of this is Iago in Othello. he is a lower rank than Othello but ends up being the predominant villain in the play. This also occurs in Macbeth as the witches, who have very little lines, affect the whole outcome of the play due to the language that they use for digging into Macbeths mind.

Throughout many pays and novels, women have had important roles of helping form the main characters, in the way they think, move or change the story. Women have always been subordinate to men all through history, but in plays, novels, short stories, etc, they have been given large enforcing roles, showing the power within women. William Shakespeare and Sophocles use guilt, pride, and influence to demonstrate the importance of the women’s role to support the main characters in both the plays of Macbeth and Antigone.

Two plays alike through tragedy, two kings with different fates. Tragedy is downfall or destruction caused by a character flaw and conflict with an overpowering force. In Antigone the king wants to be right and puts himself higher than the gods which costs him his family. In Macbeth the king wants to stay king, so he kills anyone in his way so he can keep the throne. The difference between the two is, in Antigone the king realizes what's going to happen and tries to stop it, while in Macbeth the king just kills without realizing the consequences that will fall upon him. Although both kings had character flaws causing conflicts with greater powers, leading to downfall, Antigone is more tragic because Creon suffers more for his family and is punished by the gods, while Macbeth dies with no punishment because he has never grieved.

boldness, bravery and , unyielding morals are all extremely important to her role in the play.