LRJ#2

An important image is seen in Antigone, when Antigone is referencing Polyneices' body. She says, "But his body must lie in the fields, a sweet treasure/ For carrion birds to find as they search for food" (Sophocles 21-22).  This quote uses descriptive language and imagery to paint a mental picture of Polyneices' abandoned body.  It is important because his death was the cause of many arguments and struggle between the other characters in the story.  His body, buried or unburied, is referenced throughout the whole story.  For example, when the sentry is informing Creon that Polyneices' was buried, he says, "New dust on the slimy flesh!" (Sophocles 103).  This shows the sentry's point of view of the body but also describes it to the reader.  Later, he goes on to say, "The body, just mounded over with light dust: you see? / Not buried really, but as if they'd covered it" (Sophocles 112).  This, of course, is after the body had been buried by Antigone.  After the conviction of Antigone, the sentry says, " The flesh was soft by now, and stinking" (Sophocles 25).  Even more images are made by antigone and the sentry to reinforce the importance of the body to each of the characters.

A fatal flaw is seen in Creon.  This flaw is his unwillingness to cooperate and listen to the ideas of others.  Creon, being a person of high importance, had many important decisions. One of which was to decide to do with the body of Polyneices. Creon decided to deny him a burial because of previous acts he committed against the city of Thebes.  When Teiresias is trying to persuade Creon to reconsider his choices he made about Polyneices' burial, Creon responds by saying, "You can be sure you won't change my mind to make yourself more rich" (Sophocles 1190).  This basically means that nothing Teiresias said could change his mind.  Later on, when Haimon is trying to reason with Creon, Creon suggests that the only way Haimon and Antigone could be married was if they were both dead. Haimon challenges this suggestion and Creon, being the stubborn character that he is, upholds his claim. He says, "Go bring her out- that hateful creature, so she can die right here, with him present, before her bridegroom's eyes" (Sophocles 760).  This demonstrates how, in his heart, Creon doesn't really want to execute Antigone but because he implied to Haimon he was  brave enough to do so, he would keep his word.  Thus, enforcing that his character is stubborn and proud.  

Creon only begins to recognizes his mistakes at the end of the play.  After Antigone, Haimon, and Eurydice have all committed suicide, he says to himself, "Woe is me, for the wretched blindness of my counsels! Alas, my son, thou hast died in thy youth, by a timeless doom, woe is me!-thy spirit hath fled,-not by thy folly, but by mine own!... Ah me, I have learned the bitter lesson!" (Sophocles 1339).  His unwillingness to accepting to others and his stubborn attitude resulted in three deaths.  Creon greatly blames himself for these things and this is where Anagnorisis is achieved.

Creon also experiences a sudden change in fortune near the end of the play.  He was used to the treatment of a king and the feeling of having power. Now that the three people in life that he was closest to are all dead, he realizes that his fortune has diminished greatly.  In the last lines of the text, Creon absolutely collapses and lets out all the emotion he was holding inside through peripeteia. Coincidentally, this is the same place that catharsis occurs.  Before the release of Creon's emotions, the audience feels pity for him, being all alone.  Fear is influencing the audience as well.  When Creon accepts the consequences for his actions, this fear and pity is resolved.  Even though the play ends with three deaths, the reader feels more reassured because Creon was able to shed his stubborn attitude and accept his fate.

Throughout Antigone women are characterized as having more power and recognition than in other stories around that time.  Antigone, the most prominent character in the play, is given the characteristics of strength, bravery, and love.  Her love for her brother gave her the strength and bravery to honor his death, despite the fact that it was against the law.  This trait is voiced by Antigone herself: "So for me to meet this doom is trifling grief; but if I had suffered my mother's son to lie in death an unburied corpse, that would have grieved my; for this, I am not grieved" (Sophocles 571).  Since Antigone was the main character in the play, one can assume  that Sophocles must have based his views on all women off of this one woman.

Works Cited

Sophocles. "Antigone." Literature Timeless Voices, Timeless Themes: World Literature. Trans. Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall 2001. 814-826.

Sophocles. "Antigone." The Internet Classics Archive. Trans. R.C. Jebb. 04October 2000. Classics.mit.edu. 24 November 2008 .

Sophocles. "Antigone." Malaspina University-College Website. Trans. Ian Johnston. May 2005.

Malaspina University College. 24 November 2008 .