Who Was Going To Think That Feminism Began More Than 24 Centuries Ago

Who was going to think that feminism began more than 24 centuries ago

Introduction

Who was going to think that feminism began more than 24 centuries ago, in a play that rivals the family with the law. Antigone of Sophocles, from the 5th century, is one of the first theatrical works to refer to feminism indirectly, through its protagonist with a homologous name to the title of the work. Antigone’s character has too many characteristics shared with the average participant of what is known today as a feminist movement, so it is considered that the antigone work is, indeed, a feminist work.

Developing

Antigone, the main character of the work, first of all, is a heroine, because even if it is tender and soft, humble, pure and angelic, she is determined, haughty and proud, in addition that she bravely fights to break the strong values of the time of the time. These are characteristics very similar to feminism of the nineteenth and twentieth century, but very few of them similar to what feminism today is. Of all the symbolic values that Antigone represents, the rebellion to power, or rather yet, the rebellion before the law, is the most marked in the work, since she is totally against what the superior common power orders herdo.

What Antigone has in common with feminism is that the two support the right that any citizen can get up and go against absurd orders. The enslave state, Antigone represents a nation that rebels. This Antigone rebellion is manifested in the work mainly through the disagreement and disagreement with the order of his brother Polinices.

ANTIGONA: Well, have I granted the honors of the burial to one of our brothers, while denies the other? It is said that for it to be honored from the dead under the earth, the rites have fulfilled, making Eteocles bury. 

More concerning the corpse of polynices, miserably dead, it is assured that he has ordered by proclaimed citizens who are not kept a grave, that no one cries it, to be left without tears, without a burial. Much more than a simple rebellion, this act at the time can be interpreted as an insertion struggle in the world, since Antigone, through his activist, brave and fierce speech tries to achieve his goal, as well as the feminist movement.

In the time of Sophocles, the woman had her rights quite restricted to the maintenance of the home and the care of her children;Only men had access to public activities such as philosophy, politics and art. Thus, this shows that the woman served as a support for the life of man. Antigone when trying against power is seen as deviant, crazy and as an exception of average woman in those times, a woman that the formal authority of the Greek society of the Sophocles era declared as impotent and irrelevant.

conclusion

Leaving this in the reader’s mind, it is reaffirmed that Antigone, in effect, is a totally feminist work. Antigone assumed responsibility for his actions and never tried to hide the fact that he was rebelling. In addition, the simple fact that Antigone has removed his own life at the end of the work, shows how much he was not willing to accept the conquest of man. It is true that there is also the possibility that the author only wanted to show female ignorance and stupidity. 

Although the true intentions of Sophocles are uncertain, for this point the theory that Antigone is feminist proves to be stronger. It can be said that Antigone is absolutely an early example in the history of a feminist, since she possesses the characteristics that are seen both in historical feminists, as well as those of today.