Review About Tragic Hero Of Antigone Of Sophocles

Review about Tragic Hero of Antigone of Sophocles

In the Antigone work of Sophocles (496-406 AC), one of the most important authors of the Greek tragedy together with Euripides (485-406 AC) and Esquilio (525-456 AC), an obvious tension between the “feelingindividual ”and" social feeling ", with Antigone focusing more on the perspective of the individual and Creon focusing on the public sphere.

In this essay you will comment on this tension present in the work and how the characters close in their own position and do not give to what others say at any time. By "individual feeling" the private sphere of the characters that generally gives a very high value to family kinship is understood, and by "social feeling" the identity that the Greeks had by their own society and for the scope of their polis.

First, Antigone is focused on the work on an individual perspective and acts in defense of family laws and therefore feels obliged to bury polynices no matter how much he had attacked Thebes breaking the principles that a man ofThebes should honor as part of society. That is why Antigona declares: “It would have been immense my sorrow if I had tolerated that my mother’s body, after his death, was left without a burial." 

When doing this Antigone is fulfilling his duty as a sister but at the same time he is opposing the rest of the society that follows the mandate of Creon not to bury polynices or cry his death, so that a great tension is generated in the work.

For its part, Antigone feels that it is his duty to bury polyinices for more than implying his death, since society, which has as representative Creon, will condemn this action and will not forgive the actions of Antigone. Given this Antigone says: “I, for my part, I will bury polyinices. It will be beautiful for me to die fulfilling that duty."

This demonstrates how closed it is antigone in her position in the face of the feeling of individuality that she possesses when putting the family about the society of Thebes. The fact that Antigone is a female character who breaks the laws of society makes her feel further from the society to which she belongs since in Greek societies women were not "completely citizen" since their role was a lotless than men. That is why Antigona encloses both his private and family environment, because Greek society was macho and gave more value to men than women. In general, the fact of complying with the laws was related to men, so it is no coincidence that the one who breaks the law in Antigone is a woman;most commonly identified by the Greeks as irrational and emotional which is the case of Antigone’s character.

On the other hand, the tension that is in Antigone around the individual and society is maintained during the work since so much Creon (who represents the feeling of society) and Antigone (who is represented by his feeling of individuality) keep closedits position against the position of the other. In this way a conflict is created that has no apparent solution outside the tragedy since no character gives in to the other and his communication does not have a true meaning to show what each character is based on his reasoning. This can be seen clearly when Antigona tells Creon: “Well, then what waners? Your words dislike me and hopefully they always dislike, since my actions are hateful of you.

What feat could I have done more glorious than to bury my brother?”In this appointment you can see that Antigone keeps his position of individual feeling very firm and his position in front of his actions reaching glorifying the fact of having buried his brother. This maintains the tension as mentioned above since Antigona maintains its position strongly opposing the position of society and of Creon. On the other hand, Creon also reinforces his position in front of the public sphere when he tells Antigone: “Lower, then, underground to love those who are already there. As for me, while I live, a woman will never send me." (p. 49) This shows how inflexible it is created with the other characters since it puts their own good about the common good saying that no one will ever give orders, much less a woman as an antigone;which also shows how macho that were Greek societies such as Thebes that is represented by Creon.

In addition, Creon continues with his strong perspective from the point of view of society and this prolongs the conflict that was already present against the feeling of individuality. This can be seen when Creon states: “This has managed to be reckless breaking the law that I have promulgated and adds a new offense to the first, gloring its disobedience and exalting its act." (p. 47) Here you can see how

Creon refers to Antigone showing that she has not only disobeyed the law that he had decreed but glimps. This clearly demonstrates that Creon will not accept anything that is contrary to its notion of citizenship so the conflict that is already present will continue to develop throughout the work. It can be said that Creon considers that obedience to authority is essential for society and that is why it will not give in to the feeling of individuality that Antigone presents, since for him, the State is much more notable than the individual. However, both antigone and Creon defend values that should be complemented since a balance between both values, individual feeling and social feeling is needed. That is why in the work you enter a conflict without resolution, since both points of view, that of the individual and that of society so as not to limit itself to just a perspective must be taken into account.

In conclusion, in this essay it was argued that in the antigone work there is an obvious tension between the "social feeling" which is represented by Creon and the "individual feeling" which is assumed by Antigone, who puts the family before society about society. This tension that occurs in the work is maintained during the same since both antigone and Creon are completely close in their position in a very inflexible way that does not consider the opinions of others. It can be assumed that Sophocles, the author of this work intended that the reader realized how inflexible and crowded and noticbe citizens who have a good balance between their notion of citizenship and their individual notion.