Comparative Interpretive Summary of Antigone 1 PDF

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Tran Le Andrew Smith ENC 1102 February 28, 2020 Comparative Interpretive Summary of Antigone By Sophocles Antigone is a tragedy written by Greek playwright Sophocles around 442 BCE. It is named after the heroine of the play who plays an integral part in the main events of the play. Polynices who is Antigone’s brother and also son the King Oedipus and betrayed Thebes. He was killed by his brother Eteocles. King Oedipus forbade to bury the traitor but Antigone performed a burial rite anyway for his brother. Creon (Antigone’s uncle) and then king rules that Antigone be buried in a cave alive. She did not budge and rather than bowing before the queen chooses to take her own life. Creon’s son Haemon with whom Antigone was to be married, sided with his father but eventually ended up killing himself with a dagger. Saddened by the death of his son, Haemon’s mother Eurydice also ends up killing herself. All of this make Creon realize that he is nothing before the gods. This shows what happens when Creon defends his power the rule of the law[ CITATION Ord19 \l 1033 ]. All of the scenes take place in a little more than 24 hours period in front of the royal palace. All the characters in the play are shown to be in state of conflict, but this is not a simple conflict of personalities in fact it’s a conflict of ideas and principles. The main conflict is between Antigone and King Creon. Antigone just wanted just brother to give a proper burial and bury his body according to all the rituals and traditions at that time but King Creon was adamant on his principle that traitors are not given any burials. He was determined to safeguard the

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interests of the state and give them priority over the interests of people even his family as well. Another character of interest of the play is the blind prophet Tiresias who consider nothing is more important than the divine rule. He constantly warns Creon to let go his ways otherwise divine wrath will be upon him and there will no way he will be able to avoid that. All the other characters in the play take somewhat less consistent position in regards to the burial of Polynices. Haemon, Creon’s son sides with his father on the decision of not allowing a proper burial for Antigone’s brother but later tries to convince his father to reverse his decision in to order to win the favor of the citizens and also reverse the decision about Antigone but all in vain as Creon is shown not to budge on his decisions. But after the persistent refusal from his father he ends up siding with his father and also nearly ends up killing up. Eurydice is a secondary character in the play and can be seen as the consequences of the cruelness and inhumanity of the king Creon[ CITATION AGa14 \l 1033 ]. There can be seen three forces at play in the play which are state (embodied in form of the cruel King Creon), clan (which is embodied by the values and determination of Antigone), will of the gods (which is embodied in form the blind prophet; Tiresias). However, as we can see and observe for a conflict and confrontation there must be only two sides. A close look at the play reveals that it is exactly the same case here which make the play one of the greatest in the history. Antigone’s insistence of burying his brother can be seen that it the embodiment of the old Greek law which respects the right of relatives to give a proper burial to the deceased. That is why Antigone mentions multiple times that the gods’ laws take much precedence over merely earth laws. And Creon is not shown to be totally godless but he is in conflict with gods unintentionally. But as in Greek culture it was not important if your actions were intentional or not if you are in conflict with gods and no power can save you from atonement now. Everything

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and everyone will turn against the person and will lead their tragic fall which is bound to happen. As Creon represents the state but state laws are nothing compared to the laws of the gods[ CITATION Tra19 \l 1033 ]. For Antigone, it was all about the family. She wanted to bury both his brother even if they were enemies in their life and her love for her brother was more important to her than his crimes. And it was necessary for her to honor all the dead even if you do not agree with them because that is what according to the ancient Greek gods law. And because of all this she openly objected to the will of the king Creon even though she knew what was coming for her and she not only did object the king’s will but went beyond that and performed the religious burial ritual for his brother. She was not afraid of the punishment by the king Creon because she feared gods more than the king. She feels if humans’ laws are in conflict with divine laws, they should not be upheld. At the end she does not regret what she did, in fact she was proud of what she did, she only regretted dying young and unmarried. The role of the Antigone in the play was show that authoritarian rulers can go to any length to show their authority even if they have to go against divine laws. To sum all this up, Sophocles shows the conflict between tribal laws and government laws. Religious beliefs are sometime in conflict with the government laws and rulers will go to any length to make sure the governments laws are upheld. But sometimes people will risk their lives for tribal laws and that is what Antigone did when she went against Creon. Although unworthy of all the honor, she still wanted to bury his brother because that is what is required by the law of the gods.

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Works Cited Sophocles. “Antigone.” Portable Literature, Reading, Reacting, Writing, edited by Laurie G. Kriszner, Stephen R. Mandell, 9th ed., Cengage Learning, 2018, pp. 95-96 AGarsson. Analysis of "Antigone" by Sophocles. 8 May 2014. . Order Essay.Org. Analysis of the Play Antigone by Sophocles. 2019. . Tragedy. Antigone – Sophocles Play – Analysis & Summary – Greek Mithology. 2019. ....