Sister Sisters In Sophocles Antigone

Sister Sister: A Comparison of Two unlike Girls Sophocles was an astonishing Athenian playwright who excelled in theater; he wrote more than one hundred twenty plays. He was most well-known for his dominant female characters and insights on life like in his famous work “Antigone.” The theme of this particular play was “the law of the gods is more important than the law of man.” In ancient Greece, citizens highly respected the gods; there were specific burial practices used in order to make sure the deceased bodies’ souls were sent to the gods. People feared that the gods would be angry if a proper burial was not carried out; however, in Sophocles’ play “Antigone,” the citizens were apprehensive of Creon and thought he would punish them for breaking his laws. Antigone felt that the gods were above all else, but her sister Ismene felt that the law was more imperative. Because of this dispute, Antigone and Ismene proved through their actions and the words of others that they were foil characters who possessed few similarities. Antigone was like an older sister that always has to get her way. …show more content…
Creon asked the Sentry who buried Polyneices, and when he told him that Antigone had done it, he said, “She was not afraid./ Not even when we charged her…/ She denied nothing” (Sophocles 698). Antigone was not cowardly like Ismene; she was willing to follow her morals in order to pass on Polyneices’ soul to the gods. At the same hearing, Creon told the public, “One has just now lost her mind: the other, / It seems, has never had a mind at all” (Sophocles 702). Antigone and Ismene were both thought to be insane but for different reasons; Antigone said she did not regret anything that she did, and Ismene was willing to lie and be put to death. Those acts and statements characterize the sisters differently, but they also show a key