Antigone Essay Research Paper AntigoneCritics have traditionally

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Antigone Essay, Research Paper Antigone Critics have traditionally divided over the question of whether Antigone or Creon is the protagonist in the play, Antigone, by Sophocles. The answer lies in ones interpretation of the play. Is it a play about a woman doomed by the sins of her father, r is it a play about a king who holds himself more powerful than the gods? Antigone is the daughter of Oedipus. Oedipus, once the king of Thebes, unwittingly killed his father and married his mother. Four children, Polyneices, Etocles, Antigone, and Ismene were the products of that union. When Oedipus learns the true ident y of Iocaste, his wife and mother, he blinds himself and leaves Thebes. His two sons, Polyneices and Etocles, wage war over the control of Thebes, and kill each other in

doing so. When the play opens, Antigone is speaking with her sister, Ismene, about Creon’s (present king of Thebes) decree that Polyneices be denied a burial. Polyneices’ body will be put into the fields, unburied, as punishment for his attack on Thebes. Antig e decides she must bury the body. If Antigone is the protagonist of this play, then the action is a further saga in the chapter of Oedipus. Oedipus and his family are doomed for his sin against the gods. Sophocles describes this in Ode II: Where once the anger of heaven has struck, that house has shaken For ever: damnation rises behind each child Like a wave cresting out of the black northeast, When the long darkness under sea roars up And bursts drumming death upon the whindwhipped sand (336). Creon becomes a tool of

the gods used to further the doom of the family of Oedipus. Antigone knows that she is cursed. In the prologue, Antigone says, ” . . . You would think that we had already suffered enough for the curse on Oedipus . . .” (322). She decides that it is her duty to defy Creon’s proclamation and bury her brother, P yneices, so that his soul can rest in peace in the Underworld. Antigone is not concerned with the punishment of death that he (Creon) has promised to impose on anyone who dares defy his edict, because her death has been foretold by the gods. Antigone ooses to bury Polyneices so that they can both die with honor. She notes that life is short, but that death is forever. Antigone remarks, “It will not be the worst of deaths – death without honor” (325). If Antigone

is the protagonist, all the action of the play is derived from this choice. Creon is the antagonist, the means by which Antigone makes the choice to die with honor. Creon becomes a pawn between the struggle of Antigone and the gods. Ant one chooses to make her peace with the gods by sacrificing her life to uphold their laws of burial. She tells Creon ” . . . all your strength is weakness itself against the immortal unrecorded laws of the gods” (333). If Creon is the protagonist, this is a play about the hubris of a man who thinks himself more powerful, and more important than the gods. He has decreed that Polyneices remain unburied to pay for his crimes against the state. But in making this procl ation, Creon defies the laws of the gods and prevents the gods from claiming

Polyneices, after his death. When Antigone is brought to Creon, after her crime has been discovered, Creon is enraged. Antigone explains that there is a higher law than his, at of the gods, and she is obeying the gods proclamation. But Creon can only see that she has broken his laws: The girl is guilty of double insolence, Breaking the given laws and boasting of it. Who is the man here, She or I, if this crime goes unpunished (334)? He condemns Antigone to death by entombing her in stone. With this action, Creon seals his fate. Creon listens to no ones advice. His son Haimon and Charagos warn him against challenging the gods. Creon, however, can not see past his own pride. Teserias finally convinces him of his foolishness. He tells Creon that ” . . . the Furies and the da gods