Antigone

The play "Antigone" is a Greek play that was written by Sophocles. This play is about a king named Creon. Whose son was named Haemon. He was engaged to Antigone. Her brother died and she told no one to bury him. Once Creon heard that someone was burring Polynesis, he decalred that the guards arrest whoever it may be. The guard arrested Antigone and took her back to Creon. Creon seemed to be trying to show that he obeyed the law and not one person would get away with disobeying him. Antigone on the other hand wanted to follow the Gods and burry her brother. The biggest dispute in this is between Antigone and Creon. Creon seems to be a person that needs to be dominate, in all aspects at all times and at this time, men were dominate over women. Women should not and would not disobey a man or disobey a law. Antigone disobeyed both. Antigone was a very strong woman in a mental aspect. When Antigones sister, Ismene, refused to help burry their brother, Antigone did not hesitate and buried him even in the daylight. She did not try to hide the fact that she committed the crime. When Antigone was arrested and was said to be killed, Ismene claimed that she was in on this crime as well. As readers we start to question and to wonder why she tried to claim that she committed the crime, when she didn’t and she knew the consequences. I believe that she either felt guilty or she didn’t want to live without her sister. Creon tried his best to show his dominance when his son begged him to let his wife, Antigone, go free. Many people beg Creon not to murder the poor girl. In the end Creon "mans up" and decides to let the girl live. When Creon returns to get Antigone, he finds that she has hung herself. This angers and upsets Haemon, Creon’s son. Instead of living the rest of his life and accomplishing something for himself or others, he kills himself as well. I think that Haemon is a very selfish person. He was a prince and had the option to be a king, he could have done so much more for the people and affected others. Instead of thinking about his potential and his future, he thought only of himself by killing himself. We later find out that Creon was severely saddened about the death of his son. He begins to realize that what he had done was wrong and That the Gods were punishing him. In the end, Creon’s wife, Eurydice, decided to kill herself too. She had lived through the murder of her niece, Antigone, and her son, Haemon. She did not want to live through anymore. Eurydice’s suicide was Creon’s largest punishment because once she was gone that left Creon alone with no one. This really affected Creon and changed his way of thinking. He could tell that the Gods were punishing him for acting out as he did. Now, he had to live the rest of his life alone.