Theme Of Fate In Antigone

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this from happening. However, his actions ultimately lead him to fulfill the prophecy. Similarly, in Antigone, Creon tries to exercise his free will by refusing to bury Polyneices, but his decision leads to the tragic deaths of his family members. These examples demonstrate the irony of free will in Greek tragedy, where characters are ultimately powerless against the forces of fate. Antigone is portrayed as having the power to choose her own fate, despite knowing that "whoever disobeys [Creon] in the least will die, his doom is sealed: stoning to death inside the city walls" (lines 42-43). Nevertheless, she remains headstrong and chooses to persist in her brother's proper burial, opposing Creon and his punishments, in order to "please those below a longer time than people here" (lines 74-75). Although Antigone does not consult an oracle directly about her fate, her choice to oppose Creon is driven by the divine, as funerary rituals are "unwritten, ever-lasting prescriptions of the gods" that not even rulers like Creon should override (line 465). This indicates the wrongdoing of Creon in trying to exercise his power to break societal laws under his own, and the gods use Antigone as a tool to punish him, but they also set a tragic fate upon her. Antigone knows the consequences of conspiring against Creon but continues to live her fate of death in order to honor her brother and the dead, because she believes she is guided by what the gods would want, not by a human.

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