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Greek tragedy strikes the contemporary audiences with the same strength it had over two and a half millennia ago. Sophocles, along with Aeschylus and Euripides are among the most famous playwrights of the Greek ancient world whose works have survived. Their plays are testimonies of the creative genius of the human mind regardless of the time, as well as of the universality of the human nature. In his dealings with the contradictions of human nature, Sophocles was among the first playwrights to tackle the issue of sacred vs. mundane.
Antigone and King Creon are the main characters in the play Antigone who embody the weakness of humanity when confronted with some of its fatal mistakes: fanaticism.
Sophocles' play, Antigone, is part of a trilogy. The other two plays are Oedipus the King and Oedipus at Colonus. Oedipus, the king of Thebes, and his wife and mother, Jocasta, make a couple that can compete as the most tragic couple in the entire history of theater. Antigone is the illustrious daughter of the aforementioned couple, a character that Sophocles chose as representation of the...
The pillar characters of the play Antigone are Antigone and king Creon, her uncle. They are divided by the debate, civic duties vs. family duties, a debate as vivid today as it was two and a half millennia ago. Sophocles places Antigone and king Creon in opposite corners in an irreconcilable situation that will lead to their tragic ends. Their inability to bend their wills, to listen to those who are playing the mediators and try to change their minds, will seal their destinies. They will pay for their stubbornness with their lives, along with the rest of the members of their family.
Antigone is irreversibly caught in her decision to honor the gods and her dead brother in his afterlife.
King Creon is blinded by what he considers to be his duty to protect his country: "Am I wrong to protect my own empire?"
Antigone is a woman and Greek women in the fifth century BCE were constraint to a secluded life with few public duties. They were dependent upon the men in their families for most of their lives.
King Creon is a man and king, so his duty to protect his kingdom as a king is doubled by his duty to exercise his rights and duties as a man in his own family. Thus, when Haemon,…
Bibliography:
Sophocles, Antigone, Prestwick House Inc. 2005.
Griffith, Mark, editor. Sophocles Antigone. Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics. Cambridge University Press. 1999
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