2,010 Plot Stories &.

Essay Reviews
from the World's Fine Literature

Revised Edition
Including the Four Series
and Further Critical Evaluations
Edited by
1dUfLt FRANK N. MAGILL
'hJ~ et/l ore. fair.. Story Editor
DAYTON KOHLER
/cow LJe. ().ccef'f: our- ~te
Volume One
A- BOS
1- 610

SALEM PRESS
Englewood Cliffs, New ieisev 07632

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ANTIGONE
TYl'e of WOTk: Drama
Au,h",: Sophocles (49;)·4{)6 B c,)
TYl'e of plot: Classical tragedy
Time of plot: Remote antiquity
Locale: The citv of Thebes '
Firs1 presented:" 441 B, C
Principal characters:
CR.EON, tyrant of Thebes
ANTICON'E, daughter of Oedipus
ISMENE, her sister
HAEMOS, son of Creon
Tnu:.SIAS, a prophet
Critique:
Although the main problem of this Shortly afterward. Creon learned
play would be unimportant today, the from a sentry that the body had been
discussions of the responsibilities of a buried, Angrily he ordered the sentry to
ruler are as pertinent now as in ancient find the perpettator of the deed, The
Greece, The characters of the play move sentry returned to the grave and un-
to their tragic ends with highly dramatic covered the body. During a dust storm
speeches, while the motal and philosophi. Antigone came to look at the g1'a\ e and,
cal problems of the plot are displayed finding it open, filled the air with [amen-
through the chorus and sohloguies. ration. Her cries attracted the attention
\Vhen first presented, the play was so of the guard. who captured her and
successful with Athenian audiences that took her to Creon,
Sophocles was made a general in the Questioned by Creon, she said that '0
war against Samos. Recent presentations bury a man was to obey the laws of the
of the play have been well received by gods, even if it were against the laws of
both audience and critic. a man. Her reply angered Creon. Antig-

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one must die. Ismene tried to soften
Creon's heart toward her sister by re--
Polynices and Eteocles, sons of the minding him that Antigone was engaged
cursed family of King Oedipus, led two to his son, Haemon. But Creon remained
armies against each other before the firm.
<.l')gates of Thebes, and both brothers "ere Haemon incurred his father's anger by
tt killed in single combat with each other. arguments that Creon should soften his
~ Creon, their uncle, and now the tyrant cruel decree because of popular sympathy
~ ruler of the city, ordered that Eteocles for Antigone. Creon said that he cared
;, be given full funeral rites, but that Poly' nothing for the ideas of the town, and
C::> nices, who had attacked the city, be left Haemon called his answer foolish, As a
unburied and unmourned Anyone who punishment, Creon ordered that Antig-
"Iv broke this decree would be punished with one be killed before Haernon's eyes,
~ death. Haemon Red with threats of revenge.
Q"" Antigone and Ismene, the sisters of Creon ordered that Antigone be walled
J Polynices and Eteocles, discussed this up in a cave outside Thebes and left
order, and with grief for the unburied there to die for her crime against his
brother tearing at her heart, Antigone law.
asked Ismene to aid her in giving him When Antigone was led out of the
burial. When Ismene refused to help in ciry, the people of Thebes followed her,
so dangerous a task, Antigone went de-- lamenting her Fate. She was thrust into
fiantly to bury Polynices, the cave. All this while, Polynices' body

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 Anngone / SOPHOCLE.S

Greek ideas about death. An unburied body meant a soul condemned to tor-
ment. It was the profound obliganon of the family, therefore, to see that a
body was properly inhumed. ThIS was more than a matter of family loyalty, r
It was an act of piety demanded by the gods.(Antlgone undertakes that "-
obligation even though it means treason to the State, the rejection of her only ('
sister Ismene, the renunciation of her fiance, and her own death)She IS (
absolutely uncornprornrsmg about It, knowing all the consequences before-
hand. As It turns out, she IS justified. But we do not know this until Tiresias Anngonc / SOPHOCLES
appears and then It IS too late to matter, for she has hanged herself.

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her
----
Creon also has a valid stand. The traitor Polynices should he punished m
death. A conscientious ruler, he IS concerned about .toyalty to the State. But
/ n hIS position as king he confuses his own will with the good of Thebes.?
fate. When suffering is a part of every man's condition, there is a vast
difference m how one takes It. A man can fumble into it through Ig,norance
and flaws of character, as Creon does, which makes hun merely pathetic.
\. In pursuing his edict, which says that anyone who buries Polynices will be ThIS IS the normal human lot. Or a person can freely choose suffenng WIth
put to death, he changes from a good king into a tyran9His vanity is In- pren eyes by takmg on a divine obligatIon m spIte of all obstacles. ThIS way
volved: he will not be put in the wrong by a young woman or his son in IS mtense and tragIc, but m the end It IS the only path that can enlarge our
front of the chorus of Theban elders. His flaw lies m hIS stubborn, self- humamty" Ihe greatness of A tttigone lies in the clarity. the pOignance. and
nghteous mflexibility when the tIde of evidence turns against him. He angrily the mtegnty WIth whIch Sophocles presented these two possibilities.
maintains his stand m the face of Antigone's martyrdom, his son's pleading,
the sympathy of the townspeople WIth Antigone, and Tiresias' warmngs'<He
"only relents because of the fear he feels after Tiresias has prophesied doom
for his family and for the city. But. again, hIS penitence comes too late to
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save himself.
However, it IS wrong to see Antigone as a perfect heroine or Creon as
a willing malefactor. The same passion that goes into Antigone's heroic
treason in burying her brother makes her unjustly cruel to her gentle SIster
Ismene ; and she has no thought whatever for Haernon, her fiance. She is
nght, but she IS also unbearably self-nghteous. The only time we feel sympathy
for her IS when she laments that she will never have a husband or a child,
but she made that choice freely and passionately, As far as character goes,
there is no difference whatever between Antigone's self-righteousness and
Creon's. Both are hard and unyielding.
The difference between the two lies In the principle by which they live.
Antigone chooses to'serve'~he-gQd~, or divine law, while Creon makes the
State hIS top priority. Both serve their principle WIth all the force of their
being. But because Creon has chosen the lesser law, and because the State
as he conceives it is indistinguishable from his own ego, he must bow in the
end to the gods, and they crush him. Ironically, he faces the same suffering
he meted out to Antigone. Just as he deprived her of the chance to have a
Sband and child, so he IS bereft of his wife and son.

! reon's fate IS sad because he blundered mto It unwittingly. through stub- ~

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