Antigone, by Sophocles

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Recommended: Character analysis in Antigone

The death of Antigone is truly a tragic episode in the Theban Plays, where she hung herself with a woven linen of her dress. By convention, her death would be characterized with feminine quality. However, Antigone, one of the few female characters in the book, possessed distinguishable female characteristics that are as remarkable as a male hero. Antigone was determined when she made up her mind to bury her brother. She was an agent of her words and took up the risks that accompanied to her deeds. Antigone was very passionate from the beginning to her death and she displayed tremendous courage when facing the death penalty. Moreover, Antigone, as a female individual, confronted bravely with the state and the authority of Creon. Throughout the entire play, Antigone upheld her beliefs and never lost her faith of Gods and the moral law. On the other hand, Antigone was a female hero because she performed the heroic deed that the Chorus would view as honorable despite she did not fight in warfare as a male warrior. Despite women were considered as subordinate to men, Antigone showed tremendous courage to honor the law of nature and endured the cruel punishment by the civil law. In the Theban Plays, Sophocles depicted Antigone as a strong feminist figure to appreciate the preeminence of the female entity in a patriarchal society.

Antigone demonstrated female preeminence that proves that women can be as strong as men.

First of all, Antigone was determined and decisive since she was willing to take up the challenge in her life and to face all the consequences. “And now is the time to show/Weather or not you are worthy of your high blood” (Sophocles 127). The declaration from Antigone is full of courage and is very similar to the warrior...

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... that Antigone took was tremendous because Antigone, as a female character, resisted the civil law written by a state of male characters, such as Creon and the Chorus. Antigone was a firm agent who enforced the divine rule while enduring all the torment as a result of her persistence. Sophocles depicted Antigone as a stubborn female, who was determined and courageous to make life happen and defended her belief. She overturned the conventional image of ancient Greek females, who hide themselves from the public and trapped by the marriage. And most important, she had done these by herself, who stood against a powerful state. In all, the Theban Plays portrayed a strong female character to exemplify the distinguishable characteristics of the female entity in a patriarchal society.

Works Cited

Sophocles. The Theban Plays. (E.F. Watling. Trans.). London: Penguin, 1974.

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Antigone, by Sophocles

Comparing the Family in Antigone and A Rose for Emily

Sophocles' Antigone