how does antigone's character develop over the course of the play antigone

by Mackenzie Hodkiewicz DVM 9 min read

In Sophocles

Sophocles

Sophocles is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were written later than or contemporary with those of Aeschylus, and earlier than or contemporary with those of Euripides. Sophocles wrote over 120 plays during the course of his life, but only seven …

’ well known Greek tragedy, Antigone, the main character undergoes immense character development. Antigone transforms from being stubborn and underestimated to courageous and open-minded. In reality, it is Antigone ’s insular persistence that leads to her ultimate decline in the play as well as others around her.

Antigone transforms from being stubborn and underestimated to courageous and open-minded. In reality, it is Antigone's insular persistence that leads to her ultimate decline in the play as well as others around her. After the death of her two brothers, Eteocles and Polynices, Creon
Creon
In Oedipus Rex, Creon is a brother of queen Jocasta, the wife of King Laius as well as Oedipus. Laius, a previous king of Thebes, had given the rule to Creon while he went to consult the oracle at Delphi. During Laius's absence, the Sphinx came to Thebes.
https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Creon_(king_of_Thebes)
becomes the new ruler of Thebes.

Full Answer

Is Antigone admirable and good?

Antigone is an admirable character in some aspects through out the play. Her pride basically serves as a building block to her being admirable. Certain examples through out the play prove this to be true ,but in some instances the end result is negative. A big example of this was her willingness to bury her brother accepting any consequences.

Is Antigone a good tragic hero?

The Tragic hero of Antigone is Creon. Admittedly some people think that Antigone is the tragic hero. They think this because Antigone moves the audience to pity. However, I think Creon is the Hero of this tragic story. I think this because Creon discovers the truth of his wrong choices and accepts responsibility for his actions.

What did Antigone learn about fate?

Fate, in the context of Antigone, is the belief that the Gods are in control of destiny. In ancient Greece, they believed that everything that happened to them was determined by the Gods.

What is the plot of ' Antigone '?

The plot or action of Antigone follows the events of the Oedipus legend, which Sophocles later told in Oedipus Rex and Oedipus at Colonnus. The back story is as follows: Oedipus had unwittingly killed his father, Laius, and married his mother, Jocasta.

Does the character of Antigone change in the course of the play?

In Sophocles' Greek tragedy, Antigone, two characters undergo character changes. During the play the audience sees these two characters' attitudes change from close-minded to open-minded. It is their close-minded, stubborn attitudes, which lead to their decline in the play, and ultimately to a series of deaths.

How is Antigone characterized?

She is strong, passionate, and full of love; sometimes to a fault; she feels a heaviness of duty to her family name and to the Gods, and to her, they are one and the same; fearless and thoughtful, takes risks, and is quick to judge; empowered by her defiance, she is proud, sensitive, and open, which gives her a ...

How does Antigone change in scene 4?

How is Antigone's tone in this scene different from her tone in earlier scenes? Antigone is less assertive and more subdued and respectful to the men and elders. Whose fate does Antigone compare to her own? Antigone accuses the Chorus of laughing at her and denying her friendly tears.

What does Antigone represent in the play?

Both of the characters of Sophocles, Antigone, and Creon represent political as well as family loyalties in the play. Whereas Creon is a king and has kingly duties of issuing commands and implementing laws, Antigone is loyal to her family.

How are the characters developed in Antigone?

Antigone develops into an admirable character in which she portrays her defiance and courage, pride and open mindedness, and sense of moral righteousness to show vital character growth as the play progresses. Antigone's own excessive pride drives her to her defeat.

Why is characterization important in Antigone?

Dialogue is an extremely important means of characterization in Antigone because, as a play, the thoughts and opinions of characters are conveyed largely through speech. Creon is portrayed as arrogant because of the tone he uses when speaking to the prophet Teiresias.

What is Antigone going to do and what may happen to her as a result?

Antigone, moved by love for her brother and convinced of the injustice of the command, buried Polyneices secretly. For that she was ordered by Creon to be executed and was immured in a cave, where she hanged herself. Her beloved, Haemon, son of Creon, committed suicide.

What happened in Scene 5 of Antigone?

Teiresias. Creon has just sent Antigone off to a tomb where she will be walled in alive. Having devised this punishment for Antigone after she tried to bury her brother Polyneices, Creon is finally free of the woman who defied his edict preventing Polyneices's interment.

What happens in Scene 3 of Antigone?

The third scene of Sophocles' Antigone opens with Haimon assuring his father of his loyalty. Creon is quite pleased. He tells Haimon that he would become extremely unhappy if he married Antigone.

What is the main message of Antigone's story?

Fate and Free Will A central theme of Antigone is the tension between individual action and fate. While free choices, such as Antigone's decision to defy Creon's edict, are significant, fate is responsible for ma...

What is the overall message of Antigone?

The message of Antigone is told by the Choragos to the audience at the end of the play. It means that those that those who lack wisdom cannot ever truly be happy. This wisdom has to come to them in submission to the gods. Big words, also known as hubris, are always punished.

What is Antigone's tragic flaw?

Antigone believes her flaw to be her strength; although her strength may be seen as a flaw, this is not what brought her to her untimely death. Antigone's major flaw was her loyalty, and her commitment was what brought her to the afterlife.

What does Antigone do in the play?

She looks past Polyneices's flaws and puts his soul to rest.

What does Antigone do to her brother?

Antigone, flooded with anger toward her sister and uncle, buries the body by herself, knowing this is the definition of piety. Antigone risks her life to bury her brother, which she feels is the honorable thing to do for a family member. Antigone is taken into custody by the King and does not deny what she has done.

Why does Antigone want everyone to know she buried Polyneices?

She wants everyone to know she buried Polyneices because she strongly believes her actions were honorable and dignified. The King cannot believe this to be true.

What does Antigone tell Ismene?

She even tells Ismene to tell everyone ; this is not a secret. Antigone feels she is in the right by burying him and knows the people are on her side. She boldly and shamelessly follows her heart to ensure her brother will make it to the Underworld. Finally, Antigone displays stubborn traits.

What decree did Creon make for Polyneices?

Partial to Eteocles, Creon decreed that anyone who tried to bury Polyneices' body will be stoned to death; instead, the body must rot in the street. Antigone is floored when she hears the order and tells her sister they must bury the body.

What would Antigone have done if she had not ignored her brother's body?

Antigone explains her actions, saying that if she had ignored her brother's body and thus not been sentenced to death, she would have suffered every day knowing she didn't do the honorable thing. She would rather die with honor than live with the guilt and shame of her brother's soul left to wander the earth.

What degree does Antigone have?

She has a dual master’s in English Literature and Teaching Secondary Ed from Simmons University. She is also a contracted freelance writer and certified AP Test Reader. Women were rarely talked about as a symbol of power in ancient Greece, but Antigone changes that paradigm by standing up for what she believes.

Essay on Creon As The Tragic Hero In Antigone

Sophocles’ Antigone is, without a doubt, one of the greatest tragedies ever written. There are many questions that somebody could ask about this work, but this one intrigues me the most: Who is the tragic hero? Could it be Antigone? Or could it be Creon? Antigone might be the name of the tragedy, but I believe that Creon is the winning candidate.

Antigone As A Tragic Hero

The play Antigone by Sophocles, represents a Greek tragedy, in which the ideal tragic hero is centered around the character Creon. As defined by philosopher Aristotle in his book Poetics, a tragedy is an imitation of a serious action or issue which arouses pity and fear in the viewer.

Essay What Does Violence Mean to the Greek?

create more subtle and detailed drawings on the pottery. The most popular drawings on the pottery were that of mythological characters in battle; details of characters holding spears and swords. This acted as propaganda to the Greek world.

Essay about Oedipus The King

Oedipus the King by Sophocles is more than just a plain tragedy. This play is a suspense thriller, where every character involved with Oedipus learned that fate is determined only by the gods. In this specific play, Apollo was deciding god that predicted the fate of every person in the city of Thebes.

What is the role of Antigone in French Resistance?

Generally audiences have received Anouilh's Antigone as a figure for French Resistance, Antigone appearing as the young girl who rises up alone against state power. Anouilh's adaptation strips Antigone's act of its moral, political, religious, and filial trappings, allowing it to emerge in all its gratuitousness.

What is Antigone's sister's name?

Antigone is the play's tragic heroine. In the first moments of the play, Antigone is opposed to her radiant sister Ismene . Unlike her beautiful and docile sister, Antigone is scrawny, sallow, withdrawn, and recalcitrant brat. Like Anouilh's Eurydice, the heroine of his play Eurydice, and Joan of Arc, Antigone has a boyish physique and curses her girlhood. She is the antithesis of the melodramatic heroine, the archetypal blond ingénue as embodied in Ismene . Antigone has always been difficult, terrorizing Ismene as a child, always insisting on the gratification of her desires, refusing to "understand" the limits placed on her. Her envy of Ismene is clear. Ismene is entirely of this world, the object of all men's desires. Thus she will at one point rob Ismene of her feminine accoutrements to seduce her fiancé Haemon. She fails, however, as such human pleasures are not meant for her.

What is Antigone's envy of Ismene?

Her envy of Ismene is clear. Ismene is entirely of this world, the object of all men's desires.

What is Oedipus's insistence on her desire?

Like Oedipus, her insistence on her desire beyond the limits of reason render her ugly, abject, tabooed. In refusing to cede it, she moves outside the human community.

Is Antigone beautiful?

As Ismene notes, Antigone is not beautiful like the rest, but beautiful in a way that stops children in the street, beautiful in a way that unsettles, frightens, and awes. Previous section Character List Next section Creon.

Sophocles's Antigone

Antigone is a tragedy written by Greek playwright Sophocles. Antigone is the third play in a trilogy about the family of Oedipus. Oedipus married Jocasta, Queen of Thebes, and had four children with her: sons Eteocles and Polyneices, and daughters Antigone and Ismene.

Antigone's Actions

As a supporter of Eteocles, Creon refuses to allow anyone to bury Polyneices' body under threat of death. Such a refusal was sacrilegious and meant to curse Polyneices even in the afterlife: he could not go to the underworld if he was not buried. Antigone refuses to allow this and tells Ismene that she will bury Polyneices.

Antigone: Character Analysis

An Antigone character analysis reveals that she was devout, brave, and brash. She speaks her mind and she acts on what she speaks, which is both her strength and her weakness. It gives Antigone noble character, but it also leads to her downfall.

Why is Antigone forced to defy the King?

Creon's law forbidding a proper burial for Polyneices sets up the conflict of the play, as Antigone is forced to defy the king in order to obey the rules of religious tradition and give the honor due her brother by the decree of the gods themselves.

What is the lineage of Antigone and her uncle?

Antigone and her uncle Creon, the two dramatically opposed characters in the play, belong to a famous mythical lineage: the founding and ruling family of Thebes. Having the palace as backdrop for the play's action creates a symbolic reference point--mythic history itself stands behind everything that occurs.

Why is Teiresias brought into the setting?

The character of Teiresias is brought into the setting to reinforce the idea that Creon stands opposed to both the natural order and just rule in Theban tradition. To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member. Create your account.

What is the Greek mythology?

While mythology develops over generations and without deliberate creative planning, its fantastical creatures or beings, its spectacularly heroic happenings, and its otherworldly settings intensified its appeal and reinforced its messages and themes.