Document 2. Pride and Power. Antigone the Tragedy. Characters in Antigone. Antigone is the one that stays with Oedipus when he is banished, a blind man, from Thebes. She warns Antigone that trying to give their brother a proper burial would surely lead to her death and declares that she wants nothing to do with the whole idea. After Antigone is captured by Creon, Ismene states that she helped because she wants to be executed with her sister. Antigone states that she is innocent, and therefore, Ismene is set free.
Creon exiled Oedipus from Thebes after Oedipus killed his father and married his mother. Creon also declared that Polyneices would not receive a proper burial because he committed treason against his own city. Creon punishes Antigone to death. Haemon is supposed to marry Antigone, however, when Creon banishes Antigone to her death, Haemon runs off. He is later found, dead by her side, after committing suicide for his lost love.
Although he supposedly is the next in line to receive power to the throne, Eteocles takes over and banishes Polyneices from Thebes. Polyneices then gathers and army and attacks his brother. He ends up killing his brother, and being killed by his brother in battle. He takes over the throne when he is old enough, and banishes Polyneices from Thebes. When Polyneices attacks Eteocles for the throne, Eteocles kills him, and is killed by same, simultaneously, in battle.
Wikipedia, Antigone. Antigone Setting. The setting of this tragedy takes place in the city of Thebes. Oedipus, who was supposed to be the ruler of Thebes, was banished by Creon because he killed his father and married his brother. Antigone Plot Summary. Oedipus was banished from Thebes, when the prophecy of patricide and incest was proven true.
Oedipus left Thebes a blind and broken man. As time passed, and the two sons aged, Eteocles claimed the throne for himself, exiling his older brother Polyneices. Polyneices then gathered a giant army and attacked Eteocles for the throne. Neither of the two sons won because they both ended up killing each other in battle. Her sister, Ismene, warns her against the dangers and consequences and states that she will not have any part in helping her sister with her scheme.
As guards brush the dirt off the body, she reveals herself willingly. Antigone's uncle, Creon , exiles Oedipus, and Antigone goes with her blind father to be his eyes as they wander the wilderness. After several hard years, Antigone and Oedipus end up in the town of Colonus, where Oedipus is fated to peacefully die in a grove sacred to the Furies. Just then, Ismene shows up and gives them some bad news from Thebes. It turns out that in Oedipus's absence, Polyneices and Eteocles have been sharing the rule of Athens.
They'd agreed to switch off ruling Thebes every year. When the time came for Eteocles to step down, though, he refused and exiled his brother. So, Polyneices went off and married a princess whose dad had a big army, and now he's at the gates determined to take back the throne. Creon shows up, representing Eteocles, and tries to convince the dying Oedipus to come back to Thebes to be buried, because a prophecy has said that wherever Oedipus is buried will be blessed.
Polyneices shows up too and also tries to get Oedipus's blessing. Oedipus tells them both to buzz off. In some versions, he curses his sons to kill each other in battle, because he feels like they neglected him all these years, unlike his devoted Antigone. Creon takes Antigone and Ismene hostage to try and force Oedipus to do what he wants.
Just in the nick of time, though, King Theseus of Athens steps in and saves the girls. Theseus grants asylum to Oedipus, allowing the old blind man to die in peace. His body is buried in secret somewhere near Athens, and the city receives his blessing. Theseus refuses, though, saying that nobody can ever know where Oedipus is buried. Antigone is super worried about the civil war between her brothers in Thebes, though, so she and Ismene head back home.
Arriving back in her hometown of Thebes, Antigone tries to talk some sense into her brothers. Try as she might, she can't get her brothers to be nice to each other, and they end up killing each other in single combat. Creon then takes over the throne of Thebes. As his first edict, he declares that Eteocles' body should be buried with all honors and ceremony, but that Polyneices' body should be left out in the open to rot and be eaten by wild animals.
Um, gross. The new king also says that anyone who touches the body will be sentenced to death. Note: Getting a proper burial was a big deal to the ancient Greeks. They make our city great.
If someone were to go against the laws and ideals put by Creon it would only cause dissension. When Antigone went against the law this was exactly what happened.
Chaos would not have ensued if she trusted her king to be right in his decision, just as all the townspeople and her sister Ismene did. Creon also had stated that one should not place a friend, in this case a brother, in front of one's country.
One could say that Antigone is selfish in her pursuits of doing so, 2 for although Polynices was Antigone's brother, he was planning to destroy Thebes if he was victorious in overtaking it. Further evidencing this idea, Polynices also killed Antigone's other brother Eteocles who was faithful to Thebes until his death defending it. Being that this is the case, why would Creon agree to a burial of a traitor who with a foreign army invaded his homeland, killing his own brother, and would have sold his fellow countrymen into slavery?
Antigone response to this is that she wants to bury her brother because that is th Now her position is similar to Creon's during his opening speech, that the demands of the city take precedence over all others, both for the living and the dead. Once again it can be said that she shows weakness in the end when she decides to hang herself. She does not accept her full punishment of being forced to live in the tomb, but takes the easy way out and kills herself.
This is almost an acceptance of defeat to Creon showing she was not willing to go forth with her punishment. Antigone's decision to carry through with the burial of her brother Polynices brought forth no seeable good. Only more catastrophe and chaos struck a family to which they are no strangers.
If Antigone had put the good of her countrymen before her deceased brother, the situation could have turned out to benefit all of Thebes. The city would have had its sense of pride back after fending off the traitor Polynices' army.
Instead the hardships which have plagued Thebes for years continued on. Individualistic ideas and actions can be very beneficial in many circumstances, but when they put the well being of the community in danger, as Antigone's did in Antigone they lose there value.
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