Antigone Research Paper

When U2’s Bono sings “women of the future hold the big revelations” (Bono “Get On Your Boots”), he is referencing the rise of women’s roles in Africa in the twenty-first century. Yet, this phrase can also apply to women in other time periods such as in ancient Greece seen in the Sophocles’ play entitled Antigone. In Antigone, the protagonist, Antigone, is a daughter of the house of Lauis, which is a noble, ruling family that has been through much affliction from deaths in the family. When a law forbids Antigone to honor her traitorous (to the state) brother in a proper burial, Antigone disobeys it to honor the gods’ instructions. This act eventually leads to the deaths of Antigone and other main characters. For the twenty-first century reader, it is important to understand how gender roles and relationships vary from time period to time period in order to fully appreciate the equal status of women in today’s society. The authors of the feminist play, Antigone, portrays the society’s perspective of women as vindictive people, the limitations of women, and the growing strong-willed quality of some women that start to rise in the respective time period. In Antigone, society generally views women as cruel people. For example, Creon, in Antigone, exemplifies the general view of society towards women in a monologue to his son, Haemon. Creon speaks of how useless women are in his eyes: “the man who rears a brood of useless children…nothing but trouble for himself, and mockery from his enemies laughing in his face” (Sophocles, 766).
When Creon, who represents the societal view towards women, describes “useless children,” he is referencing daughters. Creon believes that women are useless because he has been taught in his society and time period that women are not innately designed to rule and do not have significant, positive effects on society. Additionally, Creon believes that women or daughters bring trouble to men because he has been taught that women

Cited: Sophocles. "Antigone." The Norton Anthology of World Literature. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2013. N. pag. Print. Bono. "Get Your Boots On." Rec. 23 Jan. 2009. U2. Brian Eno, 2009. MP3. Bono. "Miss Sarajevo." Rec. Aug. 1995. Island. U2. Brian Eno, 1995. MP3.