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    Antigone Theme Essay

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    sam eliza
    Sophocles' play Antigone explores the themes of hubris and the conflict between divine and mortal laws. Creon's excessive pride in his power as king leads to disastrous consequences, as he refuses to allow Antigone to bury her brother in defiance of his edict. Both Antigone and Creon display hubris in prioritizing their own laws over the other's, with Antigone burying her brother and Creon sentencing her to death for it. Their clash of wills results in the downfall of Creon's house, with the suicide of his son Haemon and his wife Eurydice. The play questions how far laws should supersede religious obligations and family duty.

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    Antigone Theme Essay

    Uploaded by

    sam eliza
    826 views3 pages
    Sophocles' play Antigone explores the themes of hubris and the conflict between divine and mortal laws. Creon's excessive pride in his power as king leads to disastrous consequences, as he refuses to allow Antigone to bury her brother in defiance of his edict. Both Antigone and Creon display hubris in prioritizing their own laws over the other's, with Antigone burying her brother and Creon sentencing her to death for it. Their clash of wills results in the downfall of Creon's house, with the suicide of his son Haemon and his wife Eurydice. The play questions how far laws should supersede religious obligations and family duty.

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    Sophocles' play Antigone explores the themes of hubris and the conflict between divine and mortal laws. Creon's excessive pride in his power as king leads to disastrous consequences, as he refuses to allow Antigone to bury her brother in defiance of his edict. Both Antigone and Creon display hubris in prioritizing their own laws over the other's, with Antigone burying her brother and Creon sentencing her to death for it. Their clash of wills results in the downfall of Creon's house, with the suicide of his son Haemon and his wife Eurydice. The play questions how far laws should supersede religious obligations and family duty.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    826 views3 pages

    Antigone Theme Essay

    Uploaded by

    sam eliza
    Sophocles' play Antigone explores the themes of hubris and the conflict between divine and mortal laws. Creon's excessive pride in his power as king leads to disastrous consequences, as he refuses to allow Antigone to bury her brother in defiance of his edict. Both Antigone and Creon display hubris in prioritizing their own laws over the other's, with Antigone burying her brother and Creon sentencing her to death for it. Their clash of wills results in the downfall of Creon's house, with the suicide of his son Haemon and his wife Eurydice. The play questions how far laws should supersede religious obligations and family duty.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    of 3

    Pickus 1

    Billy Pickus
    Gina Gordon
    English 1
    30 January 2013
    Themes of Antigone
    Just like two poisonous elements combine to create an essential element of life,
    two simple, contrasting opinions can clash to form a complex, rough, and sometimes fatal
    result. This is clearly depicted in the ancient Greek tragedy Antigone. Sophocles, the
    author of Antigone, showed that choices based off of hubris will foretell and result in
    disaster and posed the question of how greatly of a priority should diving laws be.
    Sophocles expresses to the audience that hubris both leads and ends in calamity.
    This is mainly shown through the pride of King Creon, ruler of Thebes, and its immense
    control over him, eventually causing the death of most characters of Antigone. However,
    Creon is not the only character who displays pride. From the commencement of the
    tragedy, Creon, out of the influence of his pride, prohibits the burial of Polyneices, a
    brother of Antigone. In another placement of pride, Antigone aims to pay respects to her
    family by attempting to bury Polyneices, clearly disregarding the law that had been
    placed. Furthermore, Antigone tries to persuade her sister by saying now you must
    prove what you are: A true sister, or a traitor to your family, (Prologue, lines 26-27).
    Soon after Antigone proves herself to be a true sister in her family by burying
    Polyneices, she is brought to Creon. Once Antigone is brought before him, he becomes
    reluctant to accuse her and even cautiously asks if it is she who really is guilty. With a
    remarkable amount of pride to overcome his emotions, Creon sentences Antigone to
    death (Scene 2, lines 18-19, lines 80-86). Eventually he has a change of heart and has

    Pickus 2
    Antigone isolated as opposed to being executed, which subsequently causes many others
    to lose their lives, such as the suicide of Queen Eurydice after she is told of the suicide
    committed by both Haemon and Antigone (Exodos, lines 59-102). Clearly depicting
    potential disaster and then catastrophe, Sophocles message stands of hubris strongly
    stands.
    The priority of a religion is one of the motifs Sophocles uses to pose the question
    of whether the laws of ones religion should be held over mortal laws or not. Antigone,
    for example, is one who prioritizes her religious laws over the laws Creon sets. This is
    made obvious when, in Scene Two, she replies to Creons questions with It was not
    Gods proclamation Your edict, King, was strong, But all your strength is weakness
    itself against The immortal unrecorded laws of God, (lines 57-61). Similar to Antigones
    defiance of laws, Creon discourages the godly laws and punishes Antigone for holding
    them higher than his own by sentencing her to death (Scene 2, lines 72-81). Haemon, son
    of Creon, believes that the punishment given to Antigone is degenerate and confronts his
    father, informing him that the citizens of the city Creon resides over share the same
    opinion. Haemon says that the people of Thebes have wonder aloud She covered her
    body. Is this indecent? and even exclaim that She should have all the honor that we can
    give to her! (Scene 3, line 65 and 67). Even though there is a conflict of whether the
    godly laws should be held over the laws of Creon or not, Sophocles sends his message,
    and successful it is.

    Pickus 3
    As clearly seen, Sophocles expresses powerful messages into his play Antigone.
    The themes of the tragedy are that excessive pride will only result in disaster and the
    thought of how highly religious laws should be of a priority. These points were clearly
    depicted in that Antigones hubris resulting in her isolation and suicide and the entirety of
    Creons family committing suicide. The righteousness of burying Polyneices displays
    religious priorities, but the isolation of Antigone reveals the thought of how much of a
    concern should divine laws be. Whether these themes will stand any longer or live
    throughout the future is unknown, but one can only hope that they will.

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