Differences And Similarities Between Antigone And Othello

Sophocles wrote the play Antigone in 441 B.C., and he is one of the three Greek tragedian writers. Sophocles lived from 496 B.C. to 406 B.C. and he is from Athens, Greece. Shakespeare wrote the play Othello in 1622 A.D, and he is known as one of the best play writes ever, Shakespeare is from Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom. The two texts that are going to be compared are Antigone, written by Sophocles, and Othello, written by Shakespeare. Both writers are very distinct from each other and are from a completely different time period, but the topics and points trying to be made are very similar. Both Sophocles and Shakespeare use the topics: trust, honor, violence and societal expectations in their plays. Sophocles uses the topic trust in his play Antigone; when Ismene says “Yes, I have done it - if Antigone says so – I join with her to share the blame”, Ismene says this because she has her sister’s back, and will do anything to save her sister (Sophocles 30). Sophocles uses trust as more of a friendship idea, while Shakespeare uses trust as husband and wife. Shakespeare uses trust in his play Othello when Othello starts to believe what Iago says to him, and he says “Ay, let her rot and perish and be dammed tonight, for she shall not live”, Othello says this because he believes that Desdemona …show more content…
Violence is typical in tragedies and that is what Antigone and Othello are. Shakespeare uses violence when Othello calls Desdemona to his room and hits her, Othello says, “Devil (Striking her)” Othello hits Desdemona because he thinks that she is cheating on him with Cassio; all of the violence occurs because of Iago. Both Sophocles and Shakespeare use violence in a unique way during their