analytical essay on antigone

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Analysis of Sophocles’ Antigone

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on July 29, 2020 • ( 0 )

Within this single drama—in great part, a harsh critique of Athenian society and the Greek city-state in general—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. In this magnificent dramatic work, almost incidentally so, we find nearly every reason why we are now what we are.

—Victor D. Hanson and John Heath, Who Killed Homer? The Demise of Classical Education and the Recovery of Greek Wisdom

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. As the play opens the succession battle between the sons of Oedipus—Polynices and Eteocles—over control of Thebes has resulted in both of their deaths. Their uncle Creon, who has now assumed the throne, asserts his authority to end a destructive civil war and decrees that only Eteocles, the city’s defender, should receive honorable burial. Polynices, who has led a foreign army against Thebes, is branded a traitor. His corpse is to be left on the battlefield “to be chewed up by birds and dogs and violated,” with death the penalty for anyone who attempts to bury him and supply the rites necessary for the dead to reach the underworld. Antigone, Polynices’ sister, is determined to defy Creon’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. Like the proverbial immovable object meeting an irresistible force, Antigone arranges the impact of seemingly irreconcilable conceptions of rights and responsibilities, producing one of drama’s enduring illuminations of human nature and the human condition.

Antigone is one of Sophocles’ greatest achievements and one of the most influential dramas ever staged. “Between 1790 and 1905,” critic George Steiner reports, “it was widely held by European poets, philosophers, [and] scholars that Sophocles’ 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.” 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. The play has elicited paradoxical responses reflecting changing cultural and moral imperatives. Antigone, who has been described as “the first heroine of Western drama,” 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. Creon has similarly divided critics between censure and sympathy. Despite the play’s title, some have suggested that the tragedy is Creon’s, not Antigone’s, and it is his abuse of authority and his violations of personal, family, and divine obligations that center the drama’s tragedy. The brilliance of Sophocles’ play rests in the complexity of motive and the competing absolute claims that the drama displays. 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. Coarse contrasts like this are not the materials handled by great dramatists. The exquisite art of Sophocles is shown in the touches by which he makes us feel that Creon, as well as Antigone, is contending for what he believes to be the right, while both are also conscious that, in following out one principle, they are laying themselves open to just blame for transgressing another.

Eliot would call the play’s focus the “antagonism of valid principles,” demonstrating a point of universal significance that “Wherever the strength of a man’s intellect, or moral sense, or affection brings him into opposition with the rules which society has sanctioned, there is renewed conflict between Antigone and Creon; such a man must not only dare to be right, he must also dare to be wrong—to shake faith, to wound friendship, perhaps, to hem in his own powers.” Sophocles’ Antigone is less a play about the pathetic end of a victim of tyranny or the corruption of authority than about the inevitable cost and con-sequence between competing imperatives that define the human condition. From opposite and opposed positions, both Antigone and Creon ultimately meet at the shared suffering each has caused. They have destroyed each other and themselves by who they are and what they believe. They are both right and wrong in a world that lacks moral certainty and simple choices. The Chorus summarizes what Antigone will vividly enact: “The powerful words of the proud are paid in full with mighty blows of fate, and at long last those blows will teach us wisdom.”

As the play opens Antigone declares her intention to her sister Ismene to defy Creon’s impious and inhumane order and enlists her sister’s aid to bury their brother. Ismene responds that as women they must not oppose the will of men or the authority of the city and invite death. Ismene’s timidity and deference underscores Antigone’s courage and defiance. Antigone asserts a greater allegiance to blood kinship and divine law declaring that the burial is a “holy crime,” justified even by death. Ismene responds by calling her sister “a lover of the impossible,” an accurate description of the tragic hero, who, according to scholar Bernard Knox, is Sophocles’ most important contribution to drama: “Sophocles presents us for the first time with what we recognize as a ‘tragic hero’: one who, unsupported by the gods and in the face of human opposition, makes a decision which springs from the deepest layer of his individual nature, his physis , and then blindly, ferociously, heroically maintains that decision even to the point of self-destruction.” Antigone exactly conforms to Knox’s description, choosing her conception of duty over sensible self-preservation and gender-prescribed submission to male authority, turning on her sister and all who oppose her. Certain in her decision and self-sufficient, Antigone rejects both her sister’s practical advice and kinship. Ironically Antigone denies to her sister, when Ismene resists her will, the same blood kinship that claims Antigone’s supreme allegiance in burying her brother. For Antigone the demands of the dead overpower duty to the living, and she does not hesitate in claiming both to know and act for the divine will. As critic Gilbert Norwood observes, “It is Antigone’s splendid though perverse valor which creates the drama.”

Before the apprehended Antigone, who has been taken in the act of scattering dust on her brother’s corpse, lamenting, and pouring libations, is brought before Creon and the dramatic crux of the play, the Chorus of The-ban elders delivers what has been called the fi nest song in all Greek tragedy, the so-called Ode to Man, that begins “Wonders are many, and none is more wonderful than man.” This magnificent celebration of human power over nature and resourcefulness in reason and invention ends with a stark recognition of humanity’s ultimate helplessness—“Only against Death shall he call for aid in vain.” Death will test the resolve and principles of both Antigone and Creon, while, as critic Edouard Schuré asserts, “It brings before us the most extraordinary psychological evolution that has ever been represented on stage.”

When Antigone is brought in judgment before Creon, obstinacy meets its match. Both stand on principle, but both reveal the human source of their actions. Creon betrays himself as a paranoid autocrat; Antigone as an individual whose powerful hatred outstrips her capacity for love. She defiantly and proudly admits that she is guilty of disobeying Creon’s decree and that he has no power to override divine law. Nor does Antigone concede any mitigation of her personal obligation in the competing claims of a niece, a sister, or a citizen. Creon is maddened by what he perceives to be Antigone’s insolence in justifying her crime by diminishing his authority, provoking him to ignore all moderating claims of family, natural, or divine extenuation. When Ismene is brought in as a co-conspirator, she accepts her share of guilt in solidarity with her sister, but again Antigone spurns her, calling her “a friend who loves in words,” denying Ismene’s selfless act of loyalty and sympathy with a cold dismissal and self-sufficiency, stating, “Never share my dying, / don’t lay claim to what you never touched.” However, Ismene raises the ante for both Antigone and Creon by asking her uncle whether by condemning Antigone he will kill his own son’s betrothed. Creon remains adamant, and his judgment on Antigone and Ismene, along with his subsequent argument with his son, Haemon, reveals that Creon’s principles are self-centered, contradictory, and compromised by his own pride, fears, and anxieties. Antigone’s challenge to his authority, coming from a woman, is demeaning. If she goes free in defiance of his authority, Creon declares, “I am not the man, she is.” To the urging of Haemon that Creon should show mercy, tempering his judgment to the will of Theban opinion that sympathizes with Antigone, Creon asserts that he cares nothing for the will of the town, whose welfare Creon’s original edict against Polynices was meant to serve. Creon, moreover, resents being schooled in expediency by his son. Inflamed by his son’s advocacy on behalf of Antigone, Creon brands Haemon a “woman’s slave,” and after vacillating between stoning Antigone and executing her and her sister in front of Haemon, Creon rules that Antigone alone is to perish by being buried alive. Having begun the drama with a decree that a dead man should remain unburied, Creon reverses himself, ironically, by ordering the premature burial of a living woman.

Antigone, being led to her entombment, is shown stripped of her former confidence and defiance, searching for the justification that can steel her acceptance of the fate that her actions have caused. Contemplating her living descent into the underworld and the death that awaits her, Antigone regrets dying without marriage and children. Gone is her reliance on divine and natural law to justify her act as she equivocates to find the emotional source to sustain her. A husband and children could be replaced, she rationalizes, but since her mother and father are dead, no brother can ever replace Polynices. Antigone’s tortured logic here, so different from the former woman of principle, has been rejected by some editors as spurious. Others have judged this emotionally wrought speech essential for humanizing Antigone, revealing her capacity to suffer and her painful search for some consolation.

The drama concludes with the emphasis shifted back to Creon and the consequences of his judgment. The blind prophet Teiresias comes to warn Creon that Polynices’ unburied body has offended the gods and that Creon is responsible for the sickness that has descended on Thebes. Creon has kept from Hades one who belongs there and is sending to Hades another who does not. The gods confirm the rightness of Antigone’s action, but justice evades the working out of the drama’s climax. The release of Antigone comes too late; she has hung herself. Haemon commits suicide, and Eurydice, Creon’s wife, kills herself after cursing Creon for the death of their son. Having denied the obligation of family, Creon loses his own. Creon’s rule, marked by ignoring or transgressing cosmic and family law, is shown as ultimately inadequate and destructive. Creon is made to realize that he has been rash and foolish, that “Whatever I have touched has come to nothing.” Both Creon and Antigone have been pushed to terrifying ends in which what truly matters to both are made starkly clear. Antigone’s moral imperatives have been affirmed but also their immense cost in suffering has been exposed. Antigone explores a fundamental rift between public and private worlds. The central opposition in the play between Antigone and Creon, between duty to self and duty to state, dramatizes critical antimonies in the human condition. Sophocles’ genius is his resistance of easy and consoling simplifications to resolve the oppositions. Both sides are ultimately tested; both reveal the potential for greatness and destruction.

24 lectures on Greek Tragedy by Dr. Elizabeth Vandiver.

The “Antigone” by Sophocles and Its Historical Context Analytical Essay

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Introduction

Works cited.

While researching texts about Sophocles’ “Antigone”, I found three articles that discussed the historical significance of the story. These articles explored various themes in the story. They explain how Antigone’s past experiences are still relevant in the present. My goal in this paper is to discuss the historical context of the story with regard to its timeless significance.

To achieve this goal, I have organized my paper into three sections and four subsections. In the first section, I give a brief introduction about Sophocles’ “Antigone”. In the second section, I outline three elements that link the story to the present. I explain the reasons that prompt Antigone to defy her king. I discuss Antigone’s actions with regard to present day societies. I end my paper with a third section which explains the timeless themes that are evident in the story.

An understanding of history usually elucidates the present. Antigone’s story is still relevant in the present. Sophocles writes about a fictional king named Oedipus, who rules the city of Thebes (Anouilh 17).

Oedipus is banished from Thebes because he has inadvertently committed incest (Woodruff 92). He has two sons named Polyneices and Eteocles (Braun 62). He also has a daughter named Antigone (Woodruff 22).

After Oedipus is banished, Eteocles banishes his older brother and claims the throne. Polyneices leaves Thebes with plans to overthrow his sibling (Braun 137). He returns and attacks the city with the help of his newfound military. Polyneices and Eteocles kill each other in the midst of the onslaught (Braun 148). Creon, a despot, is later crowned king of Thebes (Woodruff 160).

Creon decrees that Eteocles will be remembered as a hero while his brother will rot in disgrace (Braun 128). Creon is the antagonist in of the story (Woodruff 14). He is a ruthless leader. He can be described as a dictator. His penalty for disobedience is death. Antigone defies Creon by planning to give Polyneices a proper burial (Braun 142).

Sophocles’ opinions about war are evident when the two brothers kill each other in the story (Woodruff 140). Sophocles believes that in war, there are no victories. When countries go to war, every side expects to have casualties. Lives are lost for the sake of petty squabbles. Antigone is also a casualty of war (Anouilh 134). She loses both of her brothers to a conflict that could have easily been resolved.

Failed State

Oedipus represents a failed state (Woodruff 129). He was the king of Thebes. He failed to meet the standards of his people. He was therefore banished shortly after he blinded himself for the atrocities he had committed. He also ruled his father’s kingdom before discovering that he had committed an act of patricide (Braun 31).

Many political leaders have been destroyed by mistakes that they made in the past. For example, a certain Italian minister was accused o having sex with an underage prostitute. Like Oedipus, his statesmen have lost faith in him. His integrity has been compromised.

Freedom of Expression

One of the political elements evident in the story is freedom of expression. Antigone intends to bury her brother in a dignified manner. Creon represents an oppressive regime (Braun 92). He plans to have her punished because her actions are akin to civil disobedience (Woodruff 152).

Creon justifies his cruelty by regarding Polyneices as an enemy of the state (Braun 147). In the present, Polyneices would be regarded as a traitor and a domestic terrorist. Attacking Thebes may be termed as an act of treason (Woodruff 67). However, his sister’s compassion for him is not an act of treason. It is an act of love and honor. Antigone believes in the gods of her people (Anouilh 24). She defies her king because she believes that her actions are justified. She is even willing to die in the name of honor.

Antigone is a symbol of martyrdom (Braun 167). She is willing to die for her beliefs. She believes that she must honor her brother. Creon represents an autocratic government (Woodruff 150). Antigone’s actions drive Creon mad (Anouilh 45). He accuses Antigone’s younger sister, Ismene of committing the same offence (Braun 178). Ismene confesses to burying her brother despite the fact that she was not involved (Woodruff 192).

Ismene’s selfless actions represent family ties. She is willing to die for her sister. Shortly after her confession, Creon discovers the truth. He orders his men to bury Antigone alive in a cave while sparing her sister (Anouilh 67). Creon’s subjects notice a change in his behavior. They assume that he is a lunatic. His son, Haemon is appalled by his actions (Braun 90). Antigone’s simple act of compassion leads to the fall of an empire (Anouilh 78).

Antigone invokes Theban law by stating that Creon’s actions are dishonorable (Braun 126). Antigone’s defiance rallies the people of Thebes (Anouilh 97). Some scholars have argued that Antigone represents the feminist movement (Anouilh 142). She is strong and compassionate. She defies an oppressive king. She also inspires the people of Thebes (Woodruff 165). Sophocles’ story is timeless (Braun 174). It elucidates the present.

Anouilh, Jean. Antigone. Chicago: Illinois, 2004. Print.

Braun, Richard. Antigone: Greek Tragedy in New Translations. New York: New York, 1990. Print.

Woodruff, Paul. Antigone. Los Angeles: California, 2001. Print.

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Analysis of Antigone by Sophocles

This essay will provide an in-depth analysis of Sophocles’ tragedy “Antigone.” It will explore the play’s themes, including the conflict between individual moral duty and state law, the role of gender, and the concept of hubris. The piece will examine key characters like Antigone, Creon, and Ismene, and how their actions and beliefs drive the plot. Additionally, the essay will discuss the play’s historical and cultural context and its relevance in contemporary discussions of ethics and morality. Moreover, at PapersOwl, there are additional free essay samples connected to Analysis.

How it works

Sophocles, one of the three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived, created the main character, Antigone, as a civil disobedience. The play embellishes the opposing conflicts between Antigone who stands for the values of family, and Creon who stands for the values of the state. It includes terms that are demonstrated throughout the Discovering Literature textbook. Antigone is one of the great Greek Tragedies remembered today, and it contains an important message to readers.

Throughout Antigone essay , many literary devices such as plot, foreshadowing, and allusion are used to enhance the play.

Plot is the chain of events in fiction or drama. Antigone begins with the death of her two brothers, Polyneices and Eteocles. The two men fought for authority over Thebes. However, they each lost their lives in the struggle for power. Polyneices is considered a traitor by Creon, the new king and Antigone’s uncle. Creon declares no one can bury Polyneices’s body due to his actions towards Thebes. Antigone disagrees with her uncle’s commandment, and she goes against his order. Creon sentences Antigone to death. However, he has a change of heart after speaking with a prophet. Creon decides to let Antigone go, but it is too late when he finds her. The play concludes with Antigone taking her own life, and Haemon, Antigone’s fiance and Creon’s son, taking his own life. After Haemon’s mother discovers the death of her son, she takes her life as well. Creon is left to grieve alone. Foreshadowing occurs when the playwright gives a hint pointing forward to a future development. In Antigone, foreshadowing is shown right off the bat.

In Creon’s opening speech to the people, he describes his loyalty to the city of Thebes over anyone, including his family. Creon tells the people that for a leader to really be known, they must be tested. As the audience, we know that Antigone has already planned to bury her brother, Polyneices. This will test Creon as the leader of Thebes. Creon’s speech foreshadows the future conflict with Antigone. Another example of foreshadowing is shown in the Prologue of Antigone. Here, Antigone foreshadows her own death in a conversation with her sister, Ismene. Antigone welcomes death by stating she would rather risk her life and die with honor. Antigone wants to do the right thing for her brother. She tells Ismene that when she completes the task of burying Polyneices, she will openly welcome death. The final literary device is allusions. An allusion is a brief mention that calls a character, event or idea to the reader’s mind. It taps into associations and meanings already in the reader’s memory. At the end of the play, Creon is unable to save Antigone, his son, and his wife. An allusion is made to the goddess Nemesis, the goddess of punishment and resentment. Creon is left with nothing, due to his harsh punishment towards Antigone. Creon, himself, is punished for his actions, and he finally admits to his wrong doings and acknowledges his faults. Another allusion is made when Antigone is sent to captivity in a cave. The chorus alludes to the goddess Danae. Danae was locked away in a tower by her father when prophecy stated her son would kill him. Both Antigone and Danae were summoned to captivity.

Antigone is considered one of the most famous tragedies ever written. The play fits into the category of Greek Tragedy. Greek Tragedy is one of the more unique categories in drama. The tragedy contains a plot, a tragic hero, theme, diction, a chorus, and spectacles. Sophocles used these six characteristics when creating Antigone. One of the more noticeable characteristics is the chorus. The chorus is introduced to the audience near the beginning of the play. The chorus comes in celebrating the recent victory in Thebes. Here, the chorus provides background information about the scene. It is clear to the audience that Thebes has just won a battle. In Greek Tragedies, the purpose of the chorus is to describe the background information about a scene, and help the audience follow along with the play. In Antigone, the chorus does just that. Another important characteristic contained in Antigone is the use of a tragic hero. Throughout the play, Antigone displays herself as the tragic hero in a variety of ways. In the play, Antigone is pure in the eyes of others. However, she is guilty in the eyes of Creon. Antigone is willing to make the ultimate sacrifice, death, to do what she considers an honorable act towards her brother. Antigone receives sympathy because she chooses to stand alone. In Greek Tragedy, the tragic hero is the character who has heroic traits, but often has flaws or make mistakes that lead to their own downfall. Antigone’s tragic flaw is her arrogance.

Although Antigone may be difficult to understand, I believe it contains many important lessons that others should read. I first became familiar with Antigone my sophomore year of high school, when I read it in English class. At first, I honestly was not interested in the play because I had a difficult time comprehending what was happening. However, after completely dissecting the play in class, everything was put into perspective for me. I became aware of Creon’s unbelievable pride in Thebes over his family. I was in awe after reading and understanding Creon’s opening speech. However, I believe he got what he deserved in the end. A reoccurring theme in Antigone is how power both corrupts and blinds the characters in the play. Creon is the most evident example of this theme.

Sophocles’ tragedy, Antigone, is a play that is still widely known today. Antigone’s character is described as a civil disobedience, and the tragic hero of the play. Antigone believed that Creon’s law was unjust, and she had the moral right to defy it. Antigone’s belief in family values ultimately sentenced her to death. Antigone embodies the characteristics of a Greek Tragedy and contains important terms from our Discovering Literature textbook. Antigone also contains a memorable lesson readers should take away from the play.

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Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Sophocles's Antigone . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

Antigone: Introduction

Antigone: plot summary, antigone: detailed summary & analysis, antigone: themes, antigone: quotes, antigone: characters, antigone: symbols, antigone: theme wheel, brief biography of sophocles.

Historical Context of Antigone

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Full Title: Antigone
When Written: Circa 442 B.C.E.
Where Written: Athens, Greece
Literary Period: Classical
Genre: Tragic drama
Setting: The royal house of Thebes
Climax: The suicides of Antigone and Haemon
Antagonist: Creon

Extra Credit for Antigone

World War II Antigone: In 1944, when Paris was occupied by the Nazis, Jean Anouilh produced a version of Antigone in which the audience was able to identify Antigone with the French Resistance fighters and Creon with the occupying forces.

World War II Antigone 2: The German poet and playwright Bertolt Brecht produced a version of the play in German, in 1948, which had even more obvious references to the Nazis. Brecht's version of the play begins in a Berlin air-raid shelter.

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Antigone Essays

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In both Homer's The Odyssey and Sophocles' Antigone, violence and war seem to be considered honorable; great fighters such as Antilokhos, Akhilleus and Odysseus of The Odyssey and Eteocles of Antigone are glorified and celebrated as exemplary...

Cold Sunlight: Light and Dark Imagery in Antigone Nicole E. DiPaolo

In Sophocles' Antigone, Creon, the King of Thebes, is entrusted to care for Antigone and Ismene, the daughters of the deceased Theban King Oedipus. However, Creon and the strong-willed Antigone clash on the issue of the burial of Antigone and...

Power Struggles Travis Hodges

Fredrick Nietzsche, a renowned German philosopher, believed that one of the strongest governing drives that humans possess is their desire for power. This theme is omnipresent in Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man , Shakespeare's Othello , and Sophocles'...

Respect for Family and Elders: the Moral Lessons of Antigone Ariel Patashnik

Sophocles's Theban plays tell the story of families afflicted by generations of personal tragedy. Unlike epics such as the Iliad , whose portrayals of whole-scale war, death, and destruction convey a sense of near-apocalyptic despair, Sophocles's...

An Examination of Imagery Across Genres: The Tragedy and The Epic Laura Eidem

A tool consistently employed by the Greeks was that of imagery, and within the genre of tragedy and the epic they have demonstrated their mastery of the device. Imagery within tragedy adds a necessary and otherwise unattainable sub-story to the...

Opposing Viewpoints Destroy the Bond between Antigone and Ismene Anonymous

In Sophocles' play Antigone, the two sisters, Antigone and Ismene, have opposing opinions concerning which to value more - the dead or the living. Antigone places greater emphasis on her duty to honor her dead brother, Polynices, while Ismene...

Antigone Travels to WWII France Mandy Geddes

Antigone travels to WWII France

No doubt, the most famous theatrical version of Antigone is the Greek original. Sophocles dramatized Antigone's choice and fate first, but he certainly was not the only playwright to see that Antigone's story is...

Deviation from an Ethical Code in Euripides' Medea Conor J. Judge

At first glance, the system of ethics presented by Euripides in his masterpiece Medea seems to parallel the systems found in several other tragedies of ancient Greek theatre. This system of helping friends and harming enemies, which recurs...

Sophocles' Themes in Antigone and Oedipus Rex Anonymous

Sophocles used his plays to encourage Athenians to take responsibility for their own actions. In the fifth century B.C., Greece was experiencing an era of military exploration, political turmoil and social revolution, including women’s...

Creon and the Alliance of Spears in Antigone Erik Yamada

In Sophocles’ Antigone, Creon makes reference to an “alliance of spears” as a metaphor pertaining to the necessary allegiance a society has to its ruler. Initially he feels his authority must be proven as absolute and in an act of hubris he...

The Non-Sacred Monster: Antigone as a Self-Determined Tragic Hero Loren Cappelson

One of the key thematic threads running through the plays of The Oedipus Cycle is the debate regarding the primary importance between the laws of the gods over those of the State. For example, in both Oedipus Rex and Antigone, the eponymous...

Competing Egos in Antigone Ali Romano

In his play Antigone, Sophocles portrays the character of Creon in a multitude of ways but particularly as proud and uncompromising. Because he is ruler of Thebes, many of his actions drive and shape the course of the drama. Significantly, it is...

Antigone's Dilemmas Sarah Noor 12th Grade

Antigone, the title character of Sophocles’ Antigone , faces the moral dilemma of whether to honor divine or mortal laws. While King Creon has decreed “no one shall bury [Polyneices],” the laws of the Gods dictate that all corpses must be buried...

71 pages • 2 hours read

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Scene Summaries & Analyses

Scene 1 and 1st Ode

Scene 2 and 2nd Ode

Scene 3 and 3rd Ode

Scene 4 and 4th Ode

Scene 5 and 5th Ode

Scene 6 and 6th Ode

Character Analysis

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Discussion Questions

Discuss the theme of blindness, both literal and metaphorical, in Antigone .

In Scene 1, Antigone and Ismene argue over what is right to do with the body of Polyneikes. In your opinion, who was in the right? Explain with references from the text.

Aside from Teiresias , who has the gift of foresight, who is the wisest character in Antigone ? Explain with references from the text.

Related Titles

By Sophocles

Oedipus at Colonus

Oedipus Rex

Philoctetes

Women of Trachis

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Home / Essay Samples / Literature / Antigone / Analysis of the Character of Antigone in Sophocles’ Tragedy

Analysis of the Character of Antigone in Sophocles' Tragedy

Category: Literature
Topic: Antigone , Character , Sophocles

Pages: 2 (944 words)

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