The Greek tragedy, Antigone, by Sophocles performed in 441 B.C. is a drama that depicts a conflict between two strong-willed people, a young woman named Antigone and a king named Kreon. The plot revolves around Antigone’s devotion to her brother and her defiance of Kreon’s orders. She chooses to obey a higher law. The main conflict in Antigone deals with the struggle between the individual and society’s laws. Through literary techniques, Sophocles conveys his attitudes towards these controversies and manages to convey certain themes and messages. This play could be interpreted as a justification for civil disobedience and as a go-ahead to follows the unwritten laws of the conscience.

Due to the historical period in which this play was written, the work gained popularity among the Athenians. During this play’s arrival, the city was slowly moving towards war and memories of previous tyrannical leaders were in the front of many of the populous’ minds.

There are five main characters in this tragedy. Antigone is the aggressive and determined daughter of Oedipus and Iokaste. She is the sister of the two deceased soldiers, Eteocles and Polyneices. Ismene is Antigone’s sister and she is characterized as being fickle and perhaps less dutiful to her family than is Antigone. Kreon is Iokaste’s brother and the King of Thebes. He is power hungry and close-minded until the conclusion of the play, but at this time it is too late. Haimon is the son of Kreon and is supposed to marry Antigone at the time this play takes place. Teiresias is a blind soothsayer who attempts to warn Kreon that enforcing his law will only end in tragedy. Seen only at the end when she murders herself in anguish is Eurydice, the wife of Kreon.

The play opens while Antigone is informing her sister that their two brothers have killed each other, but Polyneices will not be receiving a proper burial because he is a traitor, according to Kreon and this is his punishment. Anyone that defies this law is to be put to death. Antigone reveals that she plans on burying her brother because that is what she, as his sister, should do. Also, she wants to appease the gods so that Polyneices will have a pleasant after-life. Ismene is reluctant to go against the will of the government, and refuses to aid Antigone in the burial of their brother. “You may do as you like, since apparently the laws of the gods mean nothing to you,” (60-62 pg 140) Antigone says in anger to her sister because she is disgusted by Ismene’s lack of loyalty to both her gods and her family. Eventually, Antigone is caught for what she has done and brought before Kreon. She denies nothing that she has done, and appears proud that she stood in her moral convictions despite what Kreon had ordered to be done. Despite a warning from Teiresias, Kreon orders that Antigone should be taken away to where she will be punished. Teiresias again reveals a prophecy to Kreon that predicts death and destruction, and begs of Kreon to retract his law and give Polyneices a proper burial. Kreon ignores this advice and continues with his only personal agenda as opposed to following the will of the oracles. By the time Kreon heeds to these warnings, it is too late. Polyneices’ body has been torn apart by dogs and Antigone, Haimon, and Eurydice have all killed themselves.

At the conclusion of the play it is obvious whom Sophocles wanted to portray as the hero or heroine, in this case. In the end, Kreon has been corrupted by power and has lost all of those people in his life that he loved. The messenger describes Kreon’s fate by saying,
“Kreon was happy once as I count happiness: Victorious in battle, sole governor of the land, Fortunate father of children nobly born. And now it has all gone from him! Who can say That a man is still alive when his life’s joy fails? He is a walking dead man. Grant him rich, Let him live like a king in his great house: If his pleasure is gone, I would not give So much as the shadow of smoke for all he owns,” (7-14 pg 156).

This woe was brought about by Kreon’s greediness. It is clear from the start that Kreon has a paranoid view of his power. “From the very beginning there have been those who have whispered together, stiff-necked anarchists, putting their head together, scheming against me in alleys,” (127- 130 pg 144) Kreon raves. Antigone emerges as a heroine who pressed forward following her own personal convictions, despite the consequences. She tells Ismene at one point, “I will bury him; and if I must die, I say that this crime is holy: I shall lie down with him in death, and I shall be as dear to him as he to me,” (55-58 pg 140). She however, in her stubborn disposition, challenges Kreon to punish her in a way by her obvious defiance. This, in turn, causes Kreon to become more stubborn in his declaration. It is this lack of compromise, perhaps, that aids in the chaos that follows. In the end the overall message seems to point out that individuals should follow their own personal convictions, and that people should not allow themselves to become corrupt by power, but instead look to higher powers for guidance.

The setting and time period that this piece was written in directly affected the play. If a play was to take place in modern society, and the moral at the conclusion was to look to the gods for guidance, it would seem odd. But in Greek tragedy it would have been odd for that not to be the moral. Also, during this time period the roles of men and women were much different than they are today. Now, viewers would be outraged if Ismene gave the argument that she was just a women and incapable of helping her dead brother. But, this subservient female role was commonplace during the days of Sophocles.

The climax of the story occurs in scene five. Here, Kreon decides that he will heed to the advice of Teiresias, the blind soothsayer, free Antigone, and bury her dead brother. Here the viewer is waiting to see what will go wrong for Kreon because obviously this is a tragedy and if he managed to accomplish these things, the play would end on a happy note, not like a tragedy at all. As the reader or watcher, one waits for Kreon’s plans to crumble. This anticipation of what is to come makes this the climax as well as the turning point of the play.

There are several conflicts in this play. One is the law of gods in opposition to the laws of man. In this play, it is evident which laws hold more bearing. Kreon should have bowed to the laws of his deities, instead of the laws of his own creation. It seems that in the end he is punished by the gods for his ignorance and disrespect for their power. Teiresias predicts this sentence. “You have kept from the gods below the child that is theirs: The one in a grave before her death, the other, Dead, denied the grave. This is your crime: And the Furies and the dark gods of Hell Are swift with terrible punishment for you,” (74- 78 pg 155) Teiresias prophesizes. He puts himself on a higher plain than them at one point, feeling he does not need to listen to the words of Teiresias. Another conflict that exists in this play is between the beliefs of an individual versus the beliefs of the state. Here, Antigone felt that her mission was more important than what the state dictated she do. Kreon felt, until the conclusion, that the laws of the state needed to be obeyed to avoid anarchy.
The general meaning of Antigone is that sometimes people need to do what they know is right despite the consequences. Another theme is that power is something that needs to be carefully managed. Too much can lead is a dangerous thing. It is important to be willing to listen to others and the gods to see what a person in power should do as well. The general meaning is summed up by Choragos in the conclusion when he says, “There is no happiness where there is no wisdom; no wisdom but in submission to the gods. Big words are always punished, and proud men in old age learn to be wise,” (139-142 pg 158).

Sophocles’ point to this play was to show his audience the importance of humbleness towards the gods. Kreon’s power destroyed him, and Sophocles was urging others not to make that same mistake. Perhaps he also wanted to raise the question of whether following laws blindly and subserviently is really the best option. Antigone followed her heart (and what she felt the gods wanted of her) over the will of Kreon. Again, the issue of power versus the gods is seen.

As a person that is not very fond of Greek tragedies, this play didn’t impress me much. I find that the characters are weak and undeveloped, as is characteristic with Greek plays since characters weren’t viewed as very important, especially in comparison to plot. One minute Haimon is following the words of his father and the next he kills himself out of ‘heartbreak’ and spite. The dialogue is weak and choppy. Also the lesson that this play teaches isn’t universal. It doesn’t ring true too much anymore in our modern day society. I personally have a hard time relating to the bullheaded Kreon. I understand that Greek tragedies built the foundation for modern day plays and were the forerunners of drama, but I find them poorly done, weak, undeveloped, and rather shallow today.


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