Character Biography: Antigone
Antigone is a very stubborn character who stands up for what she believes in. she has a strong personality and will not take nonsense from anyone. Her insistence on her desire beyond the limits of reason make her appear ugly and abject. She is particularly arrogant towards her sister (Ismene) who possesses feminine qualities, and is the object of all men’s desires. Antigone is very envious towards her sister, however she will never show nor admit it. This is because Antigone has a “masculine” physique and curses her womanhood. Ismene well realizes that she does in fact possess pure inner qualities. She understands she is not beautiful like the rest, but in fact realizes she is beautiful in her own way which might
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if there is something that she disagrees with, she will speak up at once and demand to be heard. She possesses an extremely loyal trait. She shows this when she goes against the king’s (her uncle) orders which forbids one of her brothers to be buried as she does it anyway. She holds loyalty close to her heart and will do whatever it takes to defend it despite if people stand in her way or not. Antigone’s second moral code is her fierce loyalty to the gods. Their laws are what she holds most sacred. She couldn’t care less about laws of man, as represented by Creon. These morals make up her strong character. She believes in things far greater than humans and there small laws. She will strive to be above them as she follows through with her loyalty to the …show more content…
Her “harmartia” however, is not the flaw. Creon declares that the body of Eteocles will be honored, but that Polyneice’s corpse will be left to rot and anyone who attempts to bury it will be executed. Antigone feels that this is wrong, and here she proves how she will stand up and take action upon something she believes is wrong. Thus, she declares that she will bury her brother despite Creon’s law. Antigone’s rebellious act and determined loyalty to the memory of her brother become her harmartia, and ultimately causes her downfall. However, she does not seem overly reluctant towards death. She welcomes it as she knows she had nothing to lose from the beginning and so, she did not hold back. Antigone’s characteristics make her a tragic hero.
I believe due to Antigone 's loyalty, she had the potential to rule a society. However, she did not posses the feminine or typical women qualities in those times. Women were considered inferior to men, which Antigone did not agree with or abide by. She acted with the same power a man would in Thebes. Her sister reflects the object of all men 's desires, where Antigone opposes them. Creon especially seems to think that Antigone is unworthy of being his son 's (Haemon) Princess and thinks she is easily replaceable.
From the very beginning of the play, the audience can see that Antigone is loyal to her family. “He’s to be left unwept, unburied, a lovely treasure for birds that scan the field and feast to their heart’s content” (Fagles 1984, 60). Polynices was to be left untouched, which could have resulted in a “divine punishment” by the gods in which he would have been sent to hell dimension. Because of her devotion to her brother, Antigone risked her life in order to save him from this eternal damnation. Her sister, Ismene, even notes that she is “truly dear to the ones who love you” (Fagles 1984, 64). Throughout the entire play, Antigone identifies strongly as being apart of a family and because she is a member, she felt as though it was her family duty to take care of them in the after life. When talking about her own mother’s death by hand, she said, “But if I had allowed my own mother’s son to rot, an unburied corpse – that would have been an agony!” (Fagle 1984, 82). Even when Antigone was accepting her punishment from Creon, she still had...
Antigone is a young woman whose moral background leads her to go against the wishes of the king to bury her brother, Polyneices. Sophocles uses Antigone as a character who undergoes an irreversible change in judgment and as a result, ends up dying. Antigone is hero, and she stands for honor, and divinity. Because Antigone's parents were Oedipus and Iacaste, she was born into a family of power; something that she could not change. At times, Sophocles leads the reader into thinking Antigone wishes she was not who she was. Ismene, Antigone's sister, refuses to help Antigone because (as she states) "I have no strength to break laws that wer...
Eventually both Creon and Antigone are destroyed by the gods (and by each other) through their own actions. Antigone is a powerful character, strong-willed, determined and at times self-righteous. She is contrasted by her sister Ismene, who is weak and powerless. Though Antigone is a powerful character, she has no real political power and is dominated by one man, Creon. Creon is both the ruler of the state as well as the patriarch of her family.
After her mother committed suicide, her father died and her brothers fought until they killed each other, Antigone projects her strong character with interesting ways of showing it. As the main character with strong values and a stubborn way, she follows the laws of god, without minding the consequences. Antigone is a strong willed woman who wins the respect of the audience by the inner strength and resistance of manipulation she has, showing the potential of human kind. She becomes a heroine with noble qualities of mind, heart and soul because she is willing to sacrifice her life, doing what she believes it is right. With a sense of family ties, she is an ideal for humanity, the issue is that she must burry her brother Polynices with an appropriate ceremony since she believes it is the last right for every human being.
In Antigone, by Sophocles, which centrals around themes such as bravery in the face of death, civil unrest, and unyielding dedication to divine justice, it is easy to understand why Ismene’s character is often called cowardly, docile, and indecisive. However, this view of her undercuts the most basic facet of her personality, the one which is absent in Antigone — a will to live. With this in mind, Ismene’s personality is far one-dimensional, as there are are certain traits she needed to embody in order to survive. She endured her tragic upbringing through rational thought and an optimism that others will do the same, all the while keeping her love for her unfortunate family intact. Though not fearless in the face of death, Ismene is a sympathetic character whose rationality, optimism, and loyalty are not to be underrated.
... do, for all your crown and your trappings, and your guards—all that you can do is to have me killed”( Sophocles190 ).This kind of bravery ultimately proves that Antigone is courageous and willing to stand up to man and do so openly in pride. This kind of courageousness was rare for women of that time. Antigone dies bravely and in loyalty of her brother and because of this she is a model of a strong female protagonist as she clearly did not abide do gender expectations.
Antigone is almost hailed to a god like status, as Oedipus was before her. She is extremely strong and unbelievably willing to sacrifice everything in the name of honor and pride. She so easily makes her decisions and chooses to die willingly without a second thought. The minute Creon questions her on breaking the law, she states: “Die I must, -I knew that well (how should I not?)-even without thy edicts.” What is even more is that Antigone was a woman, a woman in a time of extreme male domination. This makes her even stronger of a person in the play and shows the growing strength of the gender that we know of today.
Antigone was a selfless person with pride as a strong characteristic of her personality. She possibly had feelings of loneliness and anger from the way society has looked upon her family from their past. It took a strong willed person who has no fear of the repercussions to stand up to a king as she did. To make everything all the worst she stood up to a king who was her Uncle and she being a female back in those time, standing up and speaking out for herself was not heard of.
In the beginning of the story, we can tell that Antigone starts off at stage five of Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development; as stated in the last paragraph. Throughout the story, Antigone faces people who disagree with her decision. In the story, Antigone is caught by Creon’s workers. Antigone is confronted by Creon about breaking the law he created. Creon states “He would: for you honor a traitor as much as him”
Antigone shows throughout the play that she is always thinking that she must do what is best for other’s and not just herself. She is willing to do what is needed to follow the law of the gods, even if it is breaking the state law.... ... middle of paper ... ...
Antigone, a resolute and heroic female protagonist, pits her individual free will against the intractable forces of fate and against the irrational and unjust laws of tyrannical man like Creon.
In Antigone, unmoderated love is prevalent throughout the play, and it is best demonstrated in three main characters: Antigone, Creon, and Ismene. Antigone has a very strong love for her brother and the gods, Creon has an extreme love for power, and Ismene has a deep love for her sister, Antigone. Each of these characters suffers greatly because of this love, and as a result, they all suffer dire consequences.
Antigone’s own excessive pride drives her to her defeat. Her arrogance and strive for self-importance blinds her to the consequences of her actions. Ismene, Antigone’s sister, rejects to take part in the crime leaving Antigone all on her own. Ismeme declares “why rush to extremes? Its madness, madness” (Sophocles 80). Ismene fails to comprehend the logic behind her siste...
In the play Antigone, by Sophocles, it is greatly apparent just within the first few exchanges between Ismene and Antigone that there are various social issues surrounding the women in ancient Greece. The play raises many gender and socially related issues especially when looking at the contextual background of the playwright and the representation of the women within the play. When the characters of the first scene begin their analog, it is important to note what they are actually saying about each other and what their knowledge of their own social status is. The audience is first introduced to Antigone who we later learn is the antagonist of the play as she rebels against the protagonist, Creon. Her sister, Ismene, is the second character the audience is introduced to, hears of Antigone's plan to bury their brother's body in the first scene. Ismene’s actions and words give the reader the hint that her sister’s behavior is not usual, "so fiery" and "so desperate" are the words used to describe Antigone's frame of mind. At this very early point in the play the reader discovers that Antigone is determined to carry out her mission to bury her beloved brother. However, she is in no position that gives her the rights as a woman, sister, or even future queen to make her own decisions and rebel. Instead, her decision to bury her brother demonstrates her loyalty to her family, the gods, and to all women. Her motivation for those decisions will end up driving her far more than that of what the laws set by Creon have implemented. She shows no fear over disobeying the king and later says about the punishment of death "I will lie with the one I love and loved by him"(Sophocles, 2). Throughout the play the reader can see the viewpoint of an obedient woman, a rebellious woman, and the social norms required for both of them.
The sexist stereotypes presented in this tragedy address many perspectives of men at this time. Creon the arrogant and tyrant leader is, the very character that exemplifies this viewpoint. Antigone's spirit is filled with bravery, passion and fury; which allow her to symbolize the very essence of women. She is strong enough to do what her conscious tells her despite the laws of the land. Many examples in the play prove that Antigone's character is very capable of making her own decisions in the name of justice. First, Antigone opposes Creon's law and buries her slain brother; because in her mind it was immoral not to. She does this because she is compassionate and loves her brother very much. Creon, however, believes that his laws must be upheld and would do anything to prevent any type rebelling. He is even more infuriated when he learns that a woman has broken his laws. He tries to show Antigone who's in charge by sentencing her to a life of imprisonment. Secondly, Antigone shows how determined she is by accepting her consequences with pride. She does not try to hide that she is responsible for breaking Creon's laws, moreover, she takes all the credit. All the while she maintains her strength because she truly believes in her actions. These sorts of actions ultimately prove that Antigone is courageous and willing to stand up to men, which was completely against the norm at this time. Her spirit refuses to submit to the role of a helpless woman like her sister Ismene's character does.