She tried to enlist Ismene to help her, but Ismene was to afraid. Antigone was dejected with CreonвЂ™s ruling and decided to bury Polynices herself. Invader, be left unburied to rot. Antigone Summary 771 Words 4 Pages.

She says to Ismene about Creons edict, 'He has no right to keep me. A well established theme in Antigone is the right of the individual to reject societys infringement on her freedom to perform a personal obligation, 14 obvious in Antigones refusal to let Creon dictate what she is allowed to do with her family members. After the brief introduction (lines 475- 485), the. In this magnificent dramatic work, almost incidentally so, we find nearly every reason why we are now what we are.In Greek mythology, Antigone was the daughter of Oedipus and his mother, Jocasta. A sentry discovered Antigone and brought her to Creon.Within this single dramaвЂ”in great part, a harsh critique of Athenian society and the Greek city-state in generalвЂ”Sophocles tells of the eternal struggle between the state and the individual, human and natural law, and the enormous gulf between what we attempt here on earth and what fate has in store for us all.

Polynices, who has led a foreign army against Thebes, is branded a traitor. Their uncle Creon, who has now assumed the throne, asserts his authority to end a destructive civil war and decrees that only Eteocles, the cityвЂ™s defender, should receive honorable burial. As the play opens the succession battle between the sons of OedipusвЂ”Polynices and EteoclesвЂ”over control of Thebes has resulted in both of their deaths. With Antigone Sophocles forcibly demonstrates that the power of tragedy derives not from the conflict between right and wrong but from the confrontation between right and right. Antigone is a tragedy written by Sophocles in the year 441 BCE and is a play about the aftermath of a civil war in which the two sons of Oedipus.

вЂњBetween 17,вЂќ critic George Steiner reports, вЂњit was widely held by European poets, philosophers, scholars that SophoclesвЂ™ Antigone was not only the fi nest of Greek tragedies, but a work of art nearer to perfection than any other produced by the human spirit.вЂќ Its theme of the opposition between the individual and authority has resonated through the centuries, with numerous playwrights, most notably Jean Anouilh, Bertolt Brecht, and Athol Fugard grafting contemporary concerns and values onto the moral and political dramatic framework that Sophocles established. Like the proverbial immovable object meeting an irresistible force, Antigone arranges the impact of seemingly irreconcilable conceptions of rights and responsibilities, producing one of dramaвЂ™s enduring illuminations of human nature and the human condition.Antigone is one of SophoclesвЂ™ greatest achievements and one of the most influential dramas ever staged. Antigone, PolynicesвЂ™ sister, is determined to defy CreonвЂ™s order, setting in motion a tragic collision between opposed laws and duties: between natural and divine commands that dictate the burial of the dead and the secular edicts of a ruler determined to restore civic order, between family allegiance and private conscience and public duty and the rule of law that restricts personal liberty for the common good.

Coarse contrasts like this are not the materials handled by great dramatists. As novelist George Eliot observed,It is a very superficial criticism which interprets the character of Creon as that of hypocritical tyrant, and regards Antigone as a blameless victim. The brilliance of SophoclesвЂ™ play rests in the complexity of motive and the competing absolute claims that the drama displays. Despite the playвЂ™s title, some have suggested that the tragedy is CreonвЂ™s, not AntigoneвЂ™s, and it is his abuse of authority and his violations of personal, family, and divine obligations that center the dramaвЂ™s tragedy. Creon has similarly divided critics between censure and sympathy. Antigone, who has been described as вЂњthe first heroine of Western drama,вЂќ has been interpreted both as a heroic martyr to conscience and as a willfully stubborn fanatic who causes her own death and that of two other innocent people, forsaking her duty to the living on behalf of the dead.

They are both right and wrong in a world that lacks moral certainty and simple choices. They have destroyed each other and themselves by who they are and what they believe. From opposite and opposed positions, both Antigone and Creon ultimately meet at the shared suffering each has caused.

Antigone Introduction Summary