Pride, Gender, and Inaction in Antigone
The cardinal subject of Sophocles drama “Antigone” is the quandary that one faces, in adhering to 1s ain decision or to stay by the bing Torahs of the land. The drama highlights the fact that work forces have been bestowed with independent thought, and have been blessed with the capacity to analyse state of affairss ; Man must therefore consult his mental modules and think rationally earlier doing a judgement. Therefore, the four major subjects of the drama Antigone are Pride, Gender, Individual versus State ; Conscience versus Law ; Divine Law versus Human Law, and Inaction.
There is no inquiry that pride, in Antigone, is a trait loathed by the Gods, one that is punishable without clemency. Sophocles describes the type of pride that allows work forces to make Torahs that substitute for Godhead rules. When Creon creates a jurisprudence because he believes it is godly will, it is the ultimate show of punishable pride, for no adult male can of all time organize a jurisprudence that is tantamount to or greater than Godhead right. Consequently, when Tiresias comes with the intelligence that Creon will be punished, Creon realizes that he has made an atrocious error, and yet still refuses to acknowledge it. Creon bends to the prophesier ‘s message merely because he wants to salvage his life, non because he knows he ‘s gone excessively far. As a consequence, Creon must endure the loss of his household.
Individual versus State, Conscience versus Law, and Divine Law versus Human Law are three major struggles in Antigone that are closely intertwined. Antigone and her rules brace with the first entity in each struggle, while Creon and his criterions line up with the 2nd. Antigone is a hazard to the position quo ; she invokes godly jurisprudence as justification for her actions, but is inexplicit in her place on religion. She sacrifices her life out of devotedness to rules higher than human jurisprudence. Creon ‘s place is an apprehensible one, for illustration, in the splash of war, and with his reign so new, Creon has to put an illustration by demoing his citizens that his power is supreme. On the other manus, Creon ‘s demand to prevail over Antigone seems to be enormously personal. The order of the province is non merely at interest after Creon ‘s error, his sense of ego as male monarch is besides in hazard after his damaging error.
Antigone ‘s sex has profound effects on the significance of her actions. Creon himself says that the demand to suppress her is critical because she is a adult female. By declining to be submissive, Antigone defies one of the basic regulations of her society. Ismene is Antigone ‘s foil because she is intimidated by the regulation of work forces, she believes that adult females should be subservient to work forces. Ismene says that work forces are stronger, and for that ground must be obeyed. In due class, we see that she has naively bought into the debatable constructs that Creon adopted. When Creon realizes he may be wrong, he changes his statement, he claims that if he was incorrectly, he could n’t squeal that he was beat by a adult female, for that would upset godly jurisprudence more than renegue oning on his rules would. It is this original fiction that Sophocles ‘ drama seeks to rectify, chiefly through the requital the Gods inflict on Creon as a consequence of his insensitive and sexist thought.
When faced with bias, Antigone and Ismene react rather otherwise. Ismene is non so much frightened of unfairness as she is panicky of her ain ruin, she can non bear to incur the rage of work forces for fright of being damned to the same destiny as the remainder of her household. After witnessing her male parent and brothers decease, she thinks that the best class of action is to obey. In the instance of Ismene, it seems inactivity is unified with fright, she so volitionally offers to decease following to Antigone, at which point we recognize that she is non so much inactive as she is unsure of her place as a adult female. Consequently, while Ismene is characterized chiefly by uncertainty, Antigone is one who plunges in front strictly on assurance and her house strong beliefs about right and incorrect. In the terminal, it ‘s because of these cardinal differences in doctrine that they can non decease as one.
In the terminal, it is evident that Antigone has received the best wages. Upon her decease, she is reunited with her loved 1s, her female parent, her male parent, her brothers and even her affianced, Haemon. The fact that Haemon takes his life after Antigone ‘s decease solidifies the thought that the Gods genuinely are honoring Antigone. While her household members are already present in the hereafter, her decease robbed her of her idolized partner to be and “Denied [ her ] portion in the nuptials songs…” but this rejection is undone upon the decease of Haemon. Creon and Ismene, with their egotistic purposes, are both left alone and are finally punished for their self-seeking actions. While both Creon and Ismene experience the loss of household and must populate out their lives in isolation, Creon ‘s penalty is fueled by the fact that his community loses esteem for him and shortly after, his imperium is taken over by a 2nd war, go forthing his life in complete ruin.
Plants Cited
Sophocles. “Antigone.” Literature and the Writing Process. Ed. Elizabeth McMahan, Susan X Day, Robert Funk. 8ThursdayEd. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice, 2007. 738-773.
