The Intricacy In Antigone By Sophocles

The intricacy of the character of Antigone is well developed through the course of the play by Sophocles. Being a lead role in the play, Sophocles evidently intended for her character to be perhaps one of the most difficult to understand. Antigone plays a more masculine role, the laws of the city are being defied by her and no one seems to acknowledge the laws of the gods, which she feels, should be acknowledged more. Her temperament is the same in terms of her rebelliousness against Creon throughout the play; from her act of unruliness against him to her bold act of burying her brother – defying the cities laws thus defying her uncles’ laws. In this essay, the chain of discussion will start with a little on how the 2 different audiences react …show more content…
Her mother is dead due to suicide; her father blinded himself; her brothers are fighting against each other in a war and now she is subsequently isolated. Here both a modern and a Greek audience would feel sympathetic towards the young woman. “Your life’s in ruins child- I wonder... do you pay for your father’s terrible ordeal.”(945-946) the chorus call Antigone’s ill-fated life as a product of her father’s terrible decisions and his tormented life. For an ancient audience one would perhaps feel sympathetic towards her calamity because even their lives weren’t as disastrous or doomed as hers. Similarly, a modern audience may feel sympathy for Antigone since the circumstances she was put in aren’t anything compared to theirs. On the other hand, her arrogance and her ignorance can be seen both positively and negatively. For an ancient audience, the fact that she 's acting out against her king would naturally be appalling, but to even until her last breath, Antigone never lets out a plea for forgiveness or a pardon from Creon for her actions. This is what sets Antigone separate from ancient Athenian women. Her intense passion to bury her brother even when she is told not to "She hasn 't learned to bend before adversity" (527) and this is her Achilles heel. Her pride and her resilience against her uncle’s orders is what primarily get her killed in the end. To a modern audience would feel both sympathy and admiration as the brave actions of the young girl have led her to her own death bed. But this is also something Antigone will gain non sympathy from the ancient audience. When she goes against the city’s laws, she signs off her life to the hands of her