Antigone by Sophocles - Book Report/Review Example

Antigone by Sophocles In the beginning of the play Antigone, there are two brothers depicted as opposing each other. He two brothers are shown as rivals who lead who opposite sides in the civil war in Thebes. The two brothers involved in this civil conflict include Polyneices and Eteocles. The civil war leads to the death of these two brothers (Heather et al, 46). The death of these two brothers makes the mantle of leadership of Thebes be passed to Creon. Through the powers of leadership passed to Creon, he decides to honor one of the dead brothers engaged in war and dishonor the other one. In this regard, Creon decides to show a sense of spiritual honor to the dead body of Eteocles and fail to honor that of Polyneices. He decides that the body of Polyneices will be put to shame in public. In this perspective, Creon makes a decision of leaving the body of Polyneices unburied so that it can act as the food to the carrion animals including worms and vultures in the battlefield (Heather et al, 32). This makes Antigone become so much annoyed and decides to refute the stand on the decision made by Creon. This follows that Antigone and Ismene are blood sisters to the dead brothers. Therefore, in this regard, Antigone decides to bury the body of her dead brother. She seeks the hands of help from her sister Ismene on the issue but the sister refuses to help her. This follows the fear she had with regards to the death penalty that would follow such an act. Antigone decides to bury her brother alone without the help of her sister. This makes Antigone furious and instantly disowns her sister. The news following the deliberate burial of Polyneices by Antigone makes Creon become so furious. He therefore calls for the culprit to be presented to him. The culprit, being Antigone, appears before Creon in a rather courageous condition. She defends the morality of her action before Creon, making him become even more annoyed. This makes him sentence Antigone and Ismene to temporary imprisonment as they await his final decisions on their case. Creon’s son named Haemon then intervenes in the case and pleads for the release of the women. This follows that the father is somehow related to Antigone and this fact would make the community members take him as an unworthy ruler. However, Creon fails to pick any sense in this. He fails to concur with his son in the matter. As a result, a conflict between them ensues following the deterioration of their conversation making them start insulting each other. This makes Haemon become so annoyed. As such, he starts planning for his death, though in secrecy (Heather et al, 28). He therefore leaves his father alone and vows never to see him again. As a result, Creon becomes convinced to act as per his wishes. He decides to set Ismene free but restrain Antigone for live burial in the cave. The blind prophet named Tiresias warns Creon against his decision. He reminds Creon of the displeasure of the gods concerning the case of Polyneices and Antigone. Creon is later convinced to bury Polyneices and free Antigone, but at an expense to one of his own members of the family, Haemon, who is pronounced dead following suicide. It is of crucial importance to highlight the fact that several forms of conflicts may exist within the community. Sophocles manages to display some of these conflicts through the play Antigone. The two major factions responsible for these conflicts are the two major characters namely Antigone and Creon. The conflicts between these two characters majorly borrow from the fact that there is clear-cut misunderstanding between the two in a number of issues (Heather et al, 37). This is majorly based on the burial of the brother to Antigone named Polyneices. The misunderstanding between Antigone and Creon on the issue of burial of Polyneices is the major source of conflict that draws a social barrier between Creon and Antigone. Antigone is depicted as a wise woman who has good moral values, virtuous and understanding. She is depicted as a respectful character who champions the rights of both men and women, living and dead. However, Creon is depicted as an unwise leader who has no respect for the dead, as well as ladies. He is depicted as a male chauvinist who is adamant to show any sense of understanding on a number of issues (Heather et al, 43). This follows that he sticks to his manipulative and punitive laws and fails to act as per the public’s perception. This draws a fierce conflict between the two characters. This conflict is based on the sound of reason and irrationality. Antigone is an object of change and reforms in the play. She is the sound of humanness, rationality and logic in the play. However, Creon stands for the sound of oppression to change and rationality. He is the sound to irrationality, inhumanness and crude leadership. This becomes the cause of disagreement between the two characters. Both the characters find some elements of offence in the actions of each other and fail to concur with each other (Heather et al, 52). This widens the gap of misunderstanding between the two characters to widen thereby leading to persistent conflicts. The other source of conflict between Antigone and Creon is on the issue of personality beliefs (Heather et al, 31). Different personalities accord different beliefs to different things. Some have strong beliefs on fellow men. Others have strong beliefs on scientific phenomena. In addition, a number of people in the society may have several strong beliefs on the powers of darkness and magic. On the same note, in the current society, a number of people may have inherent beliefs on themselves, thereby wanting to set standards to other people, force them to obey and believe in what he believes. Failure to do so is tantamount to severe penalties that follow the individual’s personal decisions. This was the case experienced in the case of Antigone and Creon as depicted in the play by Sophocles. However, a number of people always have strong beliefs founded on the supernatural spirits. These may include strong beliefs on deities, gods as well as other religious provisions. It is of critical importance to note that such people are always so rational in their decisions. Such individuals who always base a greater proportion of their beliefs on supernatural beings, including God, are always so critical, wise and intelligent. This follows that their thoughts, opinions and decisions are always influenced greatly by the powers of such extraordinary personalities. As such, it is always a common feature of such people to think positively on several issues that bring general good to themselves as well as to the whole society (Heather et al, 37). This was the case as well as the stand espoused by Antigone. Such people always believe that the laws of uniformity, harmony and peace presented in such objects of beliefs exist for the general good of the whole humanity. This follows that such provisions always train people, alongside imparting the individuals with the sense of rational reason, humanness as well as respect for equality of personality. This was one of the things championed by Antigone in the play. Antigone, through her beliefs, knew that the divine authority over anything, be it death or life, was God. Antigone maintained the belief that God is the foreseer of everything and has power over everything. By this, she believed that God has powers and rules over both life and death. However, this elicited a form of opposition from Creon following his beliefs. Creon had a contrary level of belief on several issues. Creon believed mostly in himself, and wanted to forcibly set his own standards for everybody to obey in the society (Heather et al, 39). This follows that he was a ruler and was convinced that he had powers over anything. This made him maintain the belief that it was only his laws that mattered. This elicited a form of conflict between the two characters. Creon is depicted as a rigid man who is quite insensitive to the virtue of humanness. He makes rules and decisions that are erosive to the general well being of the society and their gods. This makes him lose his son, Haemon and the other woman known as Eurydice, Creon’s wife. The issue of insensitivity in decision making is another core factor that precipitates the conflicts between Creon and Antigone. Creon is depicted to be extremely insensitive to a number of issues. He is depicted to be so selfish and quite crude in decision making (Heather et al, 43). It is of crucial significance to acknowledge the fact that there are several powers that are vested in leadership. Therefore, as a leader, one may enjoy those powers as defined by the social constitution, religious perspective, as well as the conventional general public’s perceptions. However, this was a miss in the rationality and jurisdiction of Creon as depicted by the play (Heather et al, 62). Some of these powers vested in such positions include punitive powers. However, such punitive powers should be wisely addressed in order to accord respect to the leader as well as bring the intended change to the offender. However, this was overlooked by Creon, thereby drawing lots of opposition, rejection and refute by Antigone. Creon is depicted to be insensitive towards showing respect to the dead. He even intends to punish the dead since he considers himself powerful and believes that it is only his laws and decisions that must be followed. He is quite insensitive to the role played by the gods relevant to showing respect to the dead. This brings him to domestic calamities as his insensitive decisions and ill beliefs makes him lose his loved ones in the family. This is a clear indication that Creon was false in his beliefs, thoughts and decisions (Heather et al, 54). As such, it is true to take to terms that the gods command several things within the society. Therefore, the belief in such gods can bring a general good or general bad to the community. For instance, Creon’s failure to acknowledge the powers of the supernatural beings and follow his own rules and decisions puts him in problems. However, Antigone, being portrayed as extremely sensitive to several issues gets her good rewards. She is freed from the pending danger that awaited her following the ill decisions of Creon. This follows that Creon had decided that Antigone should be buried alive to act as a punishment to her following her failure to obey his commands and bury her brother’s body (Heather et al, 67). Based on the play, Antigone, there are several lessons that Sophocles tells us about the relationship between individuals and the societies that they inhabit. Sophocles wisely introduces the lesson that people should always be sensitive and understanding to the social environment that they live in (Heather et al, 73). In this regard, the social environment referred here include the people surrounding you, their beliefs, common interests as well as their perceptions towards themselves and to others. With this regard, a person needs to be sensitive relevant to decisions he or she makes concerning several issues that affect the whole society. A leader needs to make rational decisions that shows respect to the objects and subjects regardless of whether such decisions are punitive or corrective. This makes such leader gain public approval, respect as well as adoration. However, failure to do so acts to earn such a leader or the individual involved several problems as is depicted by the case of deaths in the associated with the family of Creon (Heather et al, 41). With this, an individual, whatever the social rank or political position, should understand that people are not equal with relevance to reason, beliefs and opinions. As such, an individual must be ready to accept and move on whenever someone fails to concur with some laws considered manipulative in the society. It is also prudent to note that Sophocles has portrays that people should be ready to accept moral and virtuous changes in the society. As such, anybody regardless of the political role, status as well as social status should be ready to accept and adopt the role played by morality changes in the society (Heather et al, 51). This is so crucial when such changes are to the general good of the society as championed by Antigone. In the society, individuals should always maintain high degree of respect, morality as well as ethics. This should always extend even to the dead. The bodies of the dead people should always be handled with due respect in order to show some elements of humanness to the bereaved, the souls of the departed as well as the supernatural beings. This is for the general good of the whole society. Furthermore, Sophocles teaches us that we should always be ready to learn from our mistakes. As such, people should always refrain from making the same mistakes since they may result to general bad to themselves as well as the society in general. This borrows a lot from Creon’s perspective whereby his queer decisions made him lose two members of his family. Works Cited Heather, James, Sarah Lawall, Lee Patterson, Patricia M. Spacks and William G. Thalmann . The Norton Anthology of Western Literature, Volume 1. W. W. Norton & Company; Eighth Edition edition, 2005. Read More