The Missing Dialogue in Sophocles' Antigone

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After reading Antigone, one might feel that there is lacking a dialogue between Antigone and Haimon before their deaths. Sophocles does not include any direct communication between the two lovers during this drama. The reader might assume that such a conversation could have taken place but was not included by Sophocles; however, it is my belief that if a conversation occurred between Antigone and Haimon prior to their deaths, Sophocles would have made it a part of his drama. Since Antigone is a work of fiction, we cannot assume anything which we are not told. We must take the situation to be exactly as Sophocles portrays it to us. This leaves the reader to determine the importance of Antigone and Haimon not speaking together alone before their deaths. When we look at the nature of the drama, we see that the point Sophocles is trying to make is a political one. The absence of Antigone and Haimon speaking alone together adds to this political atmosphere and does not inject the play with a question of romantic love and/or loyalty. Family bonds and loyalty are the crucial issues instead.

The central question of this play is a political one. What should have more power within a society, the divine laws of the gods or the laws of the land and the mortal rulers? Antigone is a representation of the divine laws of the gods, and she remains steadfast to her beliefs that the wishes of the gods should overpower the wishes of the king. Creon, on the other hand, is the representation of the laws of the land and the mortal ruler of society. He, too, remains steadfast (until the end of th...

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...imon in a position to forego the loyalty he holds towards his father. Also, had there been more of a romantic undertone to the actions of Haimon, it would have taken away from the political issues that Sophocles is presenting. The question is not one of love and whether or not the decisions Antigone and Haimon make are in accordance with their love for one another, it is one of whose laws should overpower the others; those of the mortal rulers or those of the gods. By not including a dialogue between Antigone and Haimon, Sophocles is able to present his political issues in a clear manner.

Works Cited

Sophocles. The Oedipus Cycle: Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone. trans. Fitts, Dudley and Fitzgerald, Robert. Harcourt Brace and Company: New York, 1949.

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